The guards in the castle in the Alvarez Empire started dropping dead like flies. It was probably eleven at night or some time near there. Lucy wasn't sure, she didn't have the time to check since they left. All she knew was that is was quite dark outside still. It wasn't a bad thing, they needed the darkness to hide in.

Everyone was made to wear black cloaks to be able to conceal themselves better in the night so that once they escaped they would be less likely to be spotted. They also wore black masks to hide their faces from enemies.

Group A knew that they had to make the guards disappear so that there would be suspicion raised and the security would be focused on them but at the same time it would be dangerous if they got into a major fight. The reason being that they weren't sure if they could bring down the spriggan 12 and they didn't want to risk losing anyone.

"Natsu, I think this is good now. We don't need to take any more guards out." Lucy whispered to him as she tapped on his shoulder gently.

He gave her a nod and the two disappeared into the shadows. The two were in charge of the east side of the palace along with Sting, Rouge, and Lyon to draw more attention there. Currently, Zeref resided in the western part of the palace so they decided to target the spot farthest from him.

The duo met up with the other three from where they first split up. It was in a dark hall at the back of the palace.

"They should be coming for us any time now." Sting whispered to the group.

"They'll probably send only one person to check it out but maybe two if they're cautious. We didn't raise enough suspension for them to think it was a large scale attack." Lyon whispered back, watching the light from the begining of the hallway.

"If it's two people we'll have to split up into two teams and fight them head on then." Sting replied.

Natsu shook his head," We can't do that. That's going to raise suspicion towards us and we can't risk them getting back up. The five of us wouldn't be able to handle it."

"Then we'll have to try and make them unconscious using the least amount of fighting." Rouge muttered with furrowed brows.

This was going to cause a problem. They couldn't fight head on because they needed to stay safe but it would be better to take out the people coming for them and draw the attention of the spriggan 12.

Finally, they saw someone, or more like sensed someone, coming down the hall. He was skinny and lanky with black hair. They knew immediately that he was one of the spriggan 12.

"God damn it. I can't believe Invel made me come here myself." He cursed as he walked past them.

The group looked at each other and nodded before Lucy, Sting, and Lyon ran out of the hallway towards him.

Sting shot a ray of light towards him as he turned around to face them, momentarily blinding his line of sight.

Lucy let out a fire dragon's breath as Lyon attacked him with his falcons made of ice. They weren't trying to get into a close ranged attack with him or any of the spriggan 12.

As the dust settled they heard chuckling coming from the man.

"That was pathetic!" He laughed, wiping the dust off his shoulders.

The trio looked at him in shock. It seemed like their attacks did no damage to him.

"I'll show you a real attack." The man grinned as he fired rockets at them.

"I'm guessing you're Wall then?" Lucy finally spoke up after she destroyed the rocket with a fire dragon fist.

"The one and only. You did your research. That doesn't mean you can defeat me though. Nobody can." He giggled maniacally.

"Be careful guys. He can analyze us for our weakness." Lucy warned the other two who gave her a nod of their head.

"So how do we defeat him?" Lyon muttered to Lucy and Sting.

"Follow my lead. We need to make him lower his guard and think that he won't need back up." Lucy replied.

"What are you guys talking about over there?!" Wall screamed, as if he was enjoying this while he shot missiles at them.

Lucy ran up at his side and kicked him with a fire dragon's talon, only for him to catch her foot. Sting shot his light dragon's breath at him while he was distracted by Lucy, hitting him square in the chest. It sent him flying back only to be caught by a bear made from Lyon's ice and pummeled to the ground.

They continued an ongoing sequence of attacks but Wall never seemed to get a scratch.

As Lucy leaped towards him again, she was shot with a missile, being propelled back into the beginning of the hallway.

"Lucy!" The two shouted out, not expecting her to get hit.

Taking their surprise to his advantage, Wall launched two rockets at the duo.

"You guys were a pain to deal with." Wall chuckled as he walked over to Lucy.

His grin slowly became a frown as he saw that Lucy was still conscious.

"Especially you." He readied his hand to fire another missile in Lucy's face.

"Natsu, rip him up!" Lucy screamed.

Natsu appeared from the shadows behind her along with Rouge. Next to Natsu stood three more shadow dragons.

Wall became momentarily flustered which gave them a slight upper hand. Each of the shadow dragons grabbed a limb while Rouge forced Wall down to his knees. Natsu came from behind him and gripped his hair, pulling his head back and in an instant tore his head off of his body as the dragons did the same to his limbs.

"Do you think you could've done that in a less bloody way?" Sting panted, walking over to them while he wiped away blood on his cheek.

"That was the only way to go. His head was tougher to rip off than I thought." Natsu replied as he tossed the head to the side.

"Do you think we caused too much of a commotion?" The group looked around the hall they stood in at the mention of Lyon's words.

It was a mess and they were sure more people would come for back up.

"At least their attention won't be directed to the western side?" Lucy chuckled nervously.

The group went back into hiding, resting while they could before their next battle came.

On the northern side stood Mirajane, Gray, Rufus, Orga, Jura, and Meredy. They were just about done with their task. Their group had to be careful and make sure they didn't take down that many guards so that the attention would be towards the eastern side but they would be in the way of the two sides to stop too many people from going to either sides.

"We should be okay. We didn't draw enough attention to get any of the spriggan 12 to come here themselves. Maybe just a few more guards." Jura whispered to their group while they crowded into the shadows.

And as if it was making him go back on his words, the eastern side of the palace started rumbling and breaking.

"It must be Lucy and Natsu's group." Mirajane giggled while the others facepalmed.

A platoon of guards ran past them with spears and swords along with shields.

"We'll get the ones at the back. They'll be less noticable." Jura whispered to the group.

Once most of the platoon passed the group emerged from the shadows and dragged the ones at the end away, silently ending their lives.

"You think those idiots did anything foolish?" Orga asked as he looked at where the platoon of soldiers disappeared to.

"Knowing them they probably did." Rufus sighed, shaking his head in disappointment but also in amusement.

"I thought I heard people talking." A man's voice came from behind them.

The group turned around with wide eyes and came face to face with a man with a skull on his head, barely any hair, and a suit coat on.

"I'm guessing you are the intruders we were warned of. My name is Jason. I have come to get rid of you." The man said with a straight face.

"The spriggan 12?" Meredy looked him up and down with a cautious look in her eyes.

Jacob turned to look at Meredy, his face turning bright red.

"WHAT'S UP WITH YOUR CLOTHES?! I CAN NOT LOOK AT YOU WITH YOUR SHAMEFUL WAS OF DRESSING!" He suddenly exclaimed as he covered his eyes with his hand.

"Leave it to me." Mirajane transformed into her demon form, flying to Jason in a flash and reaching in his chest for his heart.

She tore his heart from his chest and squished it, ending his life. Jason collapsed onto the floor in a lifeless heap.

"Don't you think that was too easy?"  Jura muttered while he looked at the man on the floor.

"It seems they sent the duds ahead to scope out what the competition looks like." Gray replied with a displeased look on his face.

And in the southern side there was Erza, Minerva, Sherria, Sherry, and Jellal. Their work, like the other two groups, was to take out the guards on their side just enough to draw attention but not like the east side. They had finished a while ago and was waiting for something to happen to signify that their battle had started.

That was when the east side of the palace seemed to collapse in on itself a little.

Erza gaped at the palace before grumbling in anger," Those fools just HAD to start something."

She was quickly pulled into a closet by Jellal as guards ran past them. There had to be around 200 of them running towards the east side.

"What should we do now?" Sherry whispered to Erza.

"Hope for the best? By now Master Mavis and the others should have gone to see Zeref." Erza replied, still watching the guards run past her.

"Then I guess we'll take care of everybody here?" Minerva looked to Jellal and Erza.

The two gave her a nod and the group jumped out, attacking the guards.

They were able to clear them out in 10 minutes, they weren't top tier guards after all.

"How long do you think it'll take for them to learn that this is a diversion?" Sherria whispered to the group.

"40 minutes top. First they'll think this is a foolish attack from people that don't know who they're up against so they won't send important people. Once they realize it's more serious than they think they'll send stronger people to come to us but it could all happen in only 40 minutes if they're careful. Let's hope it'll take them more than an hour to catch on." Jellal said as he finished off the last guy.

"Then why'd Master Mavis tell us to meet at the spot in 3 hours?" Sherry asked.

"In case something goes wrong or a group is behind. We're not trying to lose anyone so 3 hours is the limit but if we're done early then we should go there before the 3 hour limit." Erza replied once they got back into hiding.

"But looking at the situation now, it doesn't look like we can go there without causing a commotion." Minerva added.

Group B ran as quietly but as quickly as they could towards the building in front of them. They hadn't reached Zeref's room yet but they already heard commotion in the other parts of the palace. Luckily for them, Zeref didn't keep guards that close to his room so they could sneak in easily.

The plan was for the other four to stand guard outside of the room while Mavis went inside and dealt with Zeref. Mavis had requested to go in alone and the others had no choice but to agree. She was the only one who knew how to defeat Zeref in some way.

Once they reached the door Mavis made herself invisible using her illusion magic. She opened the door and slipped inside, not making any noise.

"I expected you to come. I felt you wake again." The man in front of her smiled.

Mavis didn't say anything. She stood there face to face with the man she hated the most.

"I know you hate me Mavis. Everyone does. Zeref, the one who destroys everything he loves. But don't forget Mavis, you were like this too. Isn't that why you killed Makarov's mother?"

"What's the point of bringing that up Zeref. That's in the past." Mavis finally said, undoing her magic.

"Well I'm just saying, we're more alike you and I. We both became victims of this curse but you had escaped it because of me. So did you come here to help me escape it too? Did you come back to me to pay the favor?"

"I did."

Zeref let out a laugh," I'm sorry but that's not possible. No one can kill me Mavis. It's a fact."

"I can. I know how to kill you Zeref." Mavis took a step towards him, a determined look in her eyes.

"You sound like you're trying to convince yourself that Mavis."

Over in the east side yet again they were making trouble.

Natsu their group had become trapped on both sides because of the guards that showed up. They were blasting their way through to the southern side where they could go out into the courtyard for more fighting room. They weren't trying to make the palace collapse in on itself.

"Let's just blast through this wall!" Lucy shouted to the others.

"That's nonsense Lucy! We can't make ourselves too noticeable!" Sting yelled back on top of all the screaming and shouting.

"You don't think we've already created a commotion?!" Natsu shouted.

Natsu blasted a wall, revealing the courtyard below.

"Everyone hang on to Natsu!" Lucy ordered.

They all cling into him as black wings made of what seemed like shadows sprouted out of his back.

He flew them down onto the courtyard, running into Erza's group.

"What are you guys doing here?!" Erza seemed like she was fuming out steam from her head.

The plan was going too off track.

"That's our line! I thought you guys were staying in the building!" Lucy shouted back to her, blasting away more guards.

"We saw guards coming this way and decided to take care of them!" Jellal yelled at he took care of the guards around him.

"Enough of this! I think you've caused enough trouble for today." A woman's voice came over the sound of fighting.

From the dust on the northern direction emerged a woman with red hair and a huge hat.

"Another member of the spriggan 12?" Lucy looked to Jellal who nodded his head.

"Be careful everyone! That's Irene Belserion. People called her the queen of dragons!" Lucy internally chuckled as she remembered the dragon queen she knew.

"It seems you took good care of the guards. But you will not be defeating me. There is no one who can surpass the power of a dragon!" She grinned as she enchanted the guards around her.

Using the enchantment berserker, she turned the guards into monstrous beings that made them stronger than they originally were.

The transformed guards leaped at the group in the middle, hoarding them. Although this caused no problem for the group to kill them, the group had trouble with the amount of guards there were.

It took them a little more time and energy now to kill them because of their amplified strength.

With a snap of her fingers, Irene enchanted the spell disappear which caused a series of explosions to explode on the battlefield.

"Queen of dragons my ass!" Lucy shouted, launching herself at Irene.

She kicked her with a fire dragon's talon, only for it to be dodged.

"Is this what dragon slayers are nowadays? That's pitiful." She smirked.

Lucy grinned," You're just a fake anyways."

From behind, Natsu leaped towards Irene with claws made of darkness and swung them at her.

Irene jumped into the air, her hat falling off as Natsu scratched it.

"You're annoying." She scoffed, enchanting the spell disappear yet again.

Now if exploded where Lucy and Natsu were standing. Lucy looked at Natsu with wide eyes, knocking him out of the way.

"Lucy!" Natsu screamed as he stared at the spot she stood.

"She's okay! I've got her Natsu!" Wendy shouted from behind the smoke.

"Wendy?! What are you doing here?! Shouldn't you be with-" Natsu was stopped mid sentence.

"I insisted on coming here to help! I can help heal you guys! Sherria can't do it all by herself while fighting can she?" Wendy gave him a smile as the smoke cleared.

Natsu have her a thankful look before glaring at Irene again.

"Thank you Wendy." Lucy said, now being able to get up after Wendy healed her.

"How interesting. You have much potential girl." Irene spoke to Wendy with a smile.

"I don't need you to tell me that." Wendy replied as she shot her a dirty look.

"It seems I need to get a little serious since I'm facing three dragon slayers."

Irene transformed into a dragon, towering above them as a red beast.

"She can transform?!" Lucy exclaimed in disbelief.

From behind her, Lucy heard the rythmic beating of wings speeding up. Far in the sky dots of colors showed up, getting more into shape as they came closer.

"We'll take care of her Lucy!" Reina roared, swooping in and grabbing Irene by the neck in her dragon form.

Along with them came, Mest.

He jumped off her back, joining the other three.

"How have you guys been?" He smiled.

"Now isn't the time for that! We're in a battlefield idiot!" Natsu yelled at him as if scolding him.

"Okay okay. I thought I could make a grand entrance." Mest sighed, turning to Wendy.

She giggled," I'm glad you're here to fight with us."

He nodded, giving her a smile of his own.

Now that their friends from afar had reached them Wendy felt more confident than before.