Chapter 5- The Rescue

Once the party had finally slowed down, everyone fell into a deep slumber, knowing that they were close to their mission starting. Lucy not being able to sleep decided to keep watch so that the other could recoup their energy. As she sat at the top of the mast she looked up at the stars and played with her necklace, a habit that had grown since she left the island that her and her brothers had shared as a home.

"Can't sleep," said the unmistakable voice of Luffy coming up the ladder.

She shook her head with a small smile, " I'm just really worried, I don't want anything bad to happen to anyone and I have a bad feeling that something will go wrong,"

Luffy came up to sit in front of her, "I'm sure everything will be okay, your friends seem to be really capable fighters and I'm sure Ace will be fine. "

"I'm sure your right, it's probably just my nerves, Fairy Tail usually just jumps into fights, so this whole planning ahead thing has got me on edge, I guess."

Luffy chuckled, "I know how that is, even though it's usually me who jumps ahead."

Lucy giggled feeling better after talking with Luffy. "I think I'm going to try and get some rest now, I'm sure we only have a few more hours before it's Go Time."

Luffy nodded, "I'll get Franky to watch until we get there then."

As they split off into different directions, Lucy's last thought was, "I hope everyone gets out of this okay."

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A few hours later everyone was woken by Franky's yell, saying they had made it to their destination. As soon as everyone was on deck they all went to their designated area, and started preparing themselves for battle.

They were lucky enough to still have the cover of night fall, so with that, the rescue team started loading up the submarine and other vehicles in order to get there under the marines defences.

"Remember that just as soon as you get to the wall send up a signal and we'll start the distraction, and good luck" Nami said before closing the hatch on the submarine and watching as it swam away, and with that she headed back to the top of the ship and waited for the right moment.

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"Hey guys, doesn't it seem a little cramped in here," Lucy said sitting on Luffys lap and holding her arm up so that she didn't hit her head on the ceiling.

"It could just be because your huge Lucy," Happy replied holding his paw up to his mouth giving a little giggle.

"Shut it cat, or I'll rip your ears off," Lucy said getting angry.

"Oh no, scary Lucy is back," Happy said trying to stay away from her and unknowingly moved closer to Erza, who picked him up by the tail and lifted him to where she could look into his eyes.

"Never joke about a womans weight."

"A...Aye," replied Happy starting to sweat. Erza let him go after his comfirmation and he landed on his head.

"I think it just fine," Luffy said not really minding the set up they had inside the submarine.

"Oh really, and if everything goes as planned how are we suppose to fit Ace in here," Lucy said as everyone in the sub realized their error.

"I'm sure we will figure it out," Gray said being the optimist of the group.

"Yeah if we have to Happy and I can carry two people back," Lily said being the voice of reason.

Lucy let out a sigh of relief," That's good to know."

Luffy gave her a smile, "You worry to much, everything will work out."

Lucy nodded her agreement, and cuddled closer to him hoping to soak up some of his fearless optimism.

After a few more minutes of quiet tension, Sanji said, " We've arrived, and I've sent the signal, which was flashing the subs lights towards the ship, your turn Lucy."

Lucy nodded again heading to the top of the sub where they were right againist the wall.

"I call upon thee in the realm of the celesitial spirits, Open gate of the Maiden, Virgo."

"Punishment Princess," Virgo said poping out of no where.

"Another beautiful woman," Sanji said hearts in his eyes and blood rushing out of his nose.

"Seriously dude, you and Loke might get along,"Gray said coming to stand beside the cook.

"No Virgo, Lucy replied, I need you to drill a hole in this wall and be as discreet as possible," Lucy said.

"Yes princess," Virgo replied getting to work. It was then that they started hearing the bombs that where heading towards their means of escape.

"I hope everyone does okay," Lucy said feeling a hand go to her shoulder.

"They'll be fine," she looked up to see it was Erza.

Lucy nodded," Right."

"Princess the hole is done and it seems the inside is completely deserted."

"Great, I have one more job for you, I need you to find a man named Ace, he should be locked in one of the cells in this prison and I'm assuming it's in a part that would be high security, but don't get caught we are trying to sneak in."

"Yes Princess, but you should know that your already missing some of your group" said the maid nodding and heading back towards the hole.

Lucy turned around not surprised to notice that Natsu, Happy, Gajeel, Lily, and Luffy were gone. "I can only hope we can get Ace out before they cause to much trouble for us."

"Fat chance," Gray said as they all started their treck through the hole Virgo made.

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Back on the ship

"I hope everyone is doing okay," Wendy said worried about her friends.

"I'm sure everyone is fine, child, we should be more concerned with ourselves at the moment," Carla said flying next to the youngest dragon slayer.

Wendy nodded as she heard Nami give the signal for her to use her power.

"Sky Dragon Roar," said Wendy as she blew air at other ships pushing them back towards their origianl locations and keeping them away from the ship.

While Brooke, Zoro, Chopper, Franky, and Robin, kept cannon balls from hitting the ship, Usopp was firing projectiles at each ship that came in to close, Nami was watching for opening so they wouldn't get trapped by the marines, and Levy would lend assitance where ever she was needed.

"This might actually work," Nami thought as she once again evaded the on coming marines. "Hurry back guys, I don't know how long we will be able to keep this up for."

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Back at Impel Down

"Princess, I can make a hole straight down into his cell, but we have to get in the very middle of the first level, which might pose a problem for everyone, both the ground and artifical trees are covered with needles and blades."

"I can handle that,"Gray said coming up beside them, "I'll just make an Ice floor and any trees we pass I'll put up a wall to keep them from scartching us."

Virgo nodded, "Another thing is, you should jump as soon as I start making the holes otherwise you might give the guards enough time to realize that there has been someone who has gotten past their defences, and the last thing is that I'll only be able to get you to level four and there is only a thin bridge for you to walk on so when we get to level three we'll have to stop so I can get you there without anyone getting hurt."

The group nodded and started making their way towards the center of the first level. Where they see that there is already a massive hole in the floor. Virgo looks at them to make sure that they are ready and then jumps down having the wizards follow her as she drills holes through each level.

When they are finally to the third floor they look down the giant hole in the middle and see a giant pot boiling a massive amount of red liquid.

"Wow, you think they went a little over board," Lucy says feeling frustrated with all the different torture levels.

"They are a very creative bunch for sure," Erza says back making everyones sweatdrop.

"Okay, now there is an elevator on the other end of that bridge once I get you on the bridge run for it," said Virgo as the rest of the group nodded.

Before they were able to start their plan though, everyone looked up to notice a pink haired man and his tiny, blue, cat walking/flying across the bridge, not seeming to be troubled by the heat at all.

"NATSU," Gray said seeing that it was their guildmate, and since their said guildmate was a dragon slayer he heard them.

Turning around he lifted his hands over his head to wave to them, "HEY GUYS, WHAT ARE YOU DOING WAY UP THERE!"

In Erza rage she changed into her heavens wheel armor and dived for the pink haired dragon slayer.

Natsus eyes became huge as Erza appeared right in front of him, grabbing the front of his shirt she started yelling, " HOW DARE YOU GIVE AWAY OUR POSTION, WE WERE TRYING TO MAKE IT TO LEVEL SIX WITHOUT BEING SEEN."

Fearing for his life Happy had flown back up the hole into Lucy's arms, shaking from his tramatic experience.

After this everyone turned back to look at the arguement that was going on, and a door at the end of the bridge openned.

"I don't think Erza realizes that she was the one caused the scene," Lucy said everyone sweatdropping.

Everyone froze, realizing that the man who had emerged from the doorway, seemed to be one of the higher officals.

"What is going on around here?"

Natsu and Erza looked at the giant figure in front of them who had striped horns and a massive marines jacket covering his torso.

Thinking fast Natsu replied, "Oh, hi, we're new here and we were told to come to you for our assignments."

"Wow, that was actually a good excuse," Lucy thought.

Catching Erza by surprise she straightened, quickly letting go of Natsu, "Yes, my name is Erza and this is Natsu, we were told we were suppose to go to level six for gaurd duty."

"Oh well that's strange, I never got any news about getting new recruits, oh well, I'm the Cheif Warden, Megellan," he said as he started walking towards the door that would lead him to the next level.

All of a sudden there was a loud, deep, rumbling. Erza and Natsu looked around trying to pin point the source of the sound when they noticed the warden was holding his stomach.

"Are you okay," Natsu asked.

"I've been suffering with the runs so I'll call someone to bring you on a tour and bring you to your posts on level six," the warden said wobbling his way back into his office.

When the door was closed Lucy jumped up, "Nows our chance."

Everyone else jumped down to the bridge and made a break for the door next to the Wardens office.

"You guys stay with whoever he sends and try to buy us some time, we'll go ahead and work as fast as we can," Lucy said.

"Awww man, I was hoping for some action," Natsu said looking depressed.

"Well you should have thought of that before you blew our cover," Erza said hitting him up side the head.

"Aye," Said happy flying around his best friends head.

Erza gave him a glare," You were with him, so you should have stopped him."

"Aye," Happy said flying back towards Lucy who was the last person by the door.

"We'll take Happy so he can help us if we need a quick get away," Lucy said before turning back around and wishing her friends good luck, and with that they went down in the lift to level six.

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Luffy's POV

"Where did everybody go?"

"I guess I jumped to fast again and got seperated from everyone, but where am I and why do I feel so cold," Luffy thought as he looked around finally noticing his surrondings.

"BRRRRRR...," Luffy said as he wrapped his arms around himself to try and ward off the cold.

"You just noticed the cold," said Luffy's companion who was walking beside him.

"Woah, where did you come from," Luffy shouted in surprise .

Gajeel and LIly sweatdropped. " We've been here the entire time," Lily responded

"We thought following you would make things more exciting, but all we've been doing is walking around."

Luffy was about to say something when he heard growling. He turned his head and noticed that they were being surronded by wolves.

"Oi, I don't have time to play with you dogs, so get out of my way."

"If you wanna go ahead we can take care of them, it's not like there is anything else to do around here anyway," Gajeel offered.

"Oh you boys don't have to worry about that," said an unknown voice. The wolves heard the voice and were so frightened that they ran with their tails between their legs.

"Awww...there goes my fun," said Gajeel folding his arms over his chest.

Laughter filled the air, "You boys are intreseting, would you like to be apart of paradise."

"No thanks," both boys said as they turned around about to head back the way they came.

Laughter filled the air again, "We have food and booze."

This made both boys stop in their tracks. They looked at each other and turned around.

"I was getting kinda hungry,"Luffy said.

"Yeah, and I was getting bored so a few booze should help liven things up," Gajeel said as they headed toward the voice and eventually to level 5.5.

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Hey guys, I'm so sorry about that wait. I got a little bit of writers block trying to figure out exactly where I wanted this story to go, but thanks for being so patient with me. I hope you all enjoy this chapter and I'll try and publish the next one soon.

Thanks guys and don't forget to R&R.