Minutes before disaster....

"What's wrong?" I ask Erik when I see the expression on his face.

He doesn't answer me, but he listens pensively to something.

"We need to get." He says, hopping off the bed, practically flying to the light switch. "We're going to be ambushed."

Panic surges through me. Ambushed? I begin to look around my room worried that someone would jump out of my wall like a crazy liquid person.

"What---"

"Quiet." The maroon-haired man shushes me and turn the light off. "Get up, now."

I pull my covers off my body, teetering my weight so I can scoot off my bed. My hand presses against my belly, and I have to use my headboard as a support bar.

There's not much I can try to anticipate. An ambush? Was it a random break-in? Or....no...it couldn't be...could it?

Erik hurries to me, leading me toward the door.

"We don't have much time," he says. "It's those guys from the hospital. I recognize their scents."

"No..." I gasp, the fear flaring into me like a raging fire.

"I need you to try and stay calm, alright?" He tells me, his violet eye piercing me.

I nod nimbly. It's impossible for me to not freak out, but I can try. I'm suddenly handed my coat.

"Put that on." I'm told. I do.

"What about Midnight?" I ask, looking back toward the hall.

"I'm right here, Blondie." The male's feminine voice fills my ears, surprising me. He emerges from the kitchen. "What? You didn't really expect me to be a deep sleeper, did you?"

"No, I--" I shake my head. "Nevermind."

The red-eyed man locks eyes with Erik, and they both share these expressions that worried me to my core. They have some unspoken language with one another, speaking through their eyes, and it was brief too.

"What's going on?" My voice hitches.

"You know what to do." The men look toward me.

"Get behind me, Lucy." Midnight stands in front of me protectively, narrowing his eyes at the shadows of my apartment. "And don't even think about playing hero."

I blink in surprise. He called me by my name! A flutter warms my chest and I smile. I shake it off and huff. "I don't play hero!"

"Whatever."

"Three people." Erik says. "One of them's that flame bastard."

Natsu?

He's here? I gulp. My fear intensifies. No, no, no! I can't let myself become handicapped with my trauma. I can't...I can't...not again...

"Oi," a warm hand is placed on my shoulder. "We're gonna protect ya. Stop worrying. It ain't good for ya."

Hiiiissssss

"Hm! Sending snakes to do your job."

From the shadows, er, the shadows gather together and take shape. It was like seeing Rogue eat shadows to power up. Honestly, if I weren't in danger, I'd have thought I was hallucinating.

"They're venomous." Midnight narrows his eyes, putting his hand out toward the slithering shadows as they raise their faceless heads to strike.

The two rope-like shadows lurch our way, fangs springing from their splitting mouths. My heart takes a leap into my throat and I flinch back, but Erik's in front of me, an arm out in front of my body protectively. I don't know why I flinched. I knew Midnight's reflection magic would protect us. Maybe it was just my instincts to.

Like black sand exploding on glass, the slim shadows disperse like ash. Pieces of them fade into the air, some pieces clutter to the carpet. The material looked like rodent bones, or of some small animal. I screw my face up in disgust, feeling a little sick now. More than I did before bed.

"Put your coat on, Blondie." Erik commands me.

I fumble with my winter attire, my fingers too shaky to get a decent grip on my zipper. But it doesn't seem to matter to him at all.

"Cobra." Midnight says.

"Yeah, yeah. I got this." The maroon-haired Slayer glances at his fellow convict and then at me. "Brace yourself, Blondie."

"What?" I look at him, confused.

Grabbing me, Erik scoops me up into his arms.I yelp at my sudden altitude, but I keep my hands on my belly. Despite all this activity outside the womb, my child is eerily still. He's probably resting, blissfully unaware of the danger he's in.

"Hold onto me."

I slide my right arm under his own, gripping the back of his shirt. I keep my other arm over my bump, I wanted to keep some sort of protection on my baby. Though I know if anything happens, I'll most likely be engulfed in protective fire like always.

"What're you going to do?" I ask, furrowing my brows up at Erik. He doesn't look at me.

"We're gonna move fast." Midnight answers for him.

"And it's gonna be loud." The men brace themselves.

"Wait. What?" I realize they were talking about jumping out of the window. Now my heart really did take a nasty drop into my stomach. I try to squeeze myself closer to Erik as I possibly can. I don't know how closer I can be without being this close. Me in his arms is as close as I can be without us merging together like some clay poppet or something.

"Oh, god..." I whimper when Erik's hold on me tightens, locking his elbows up like an iron deadbolt. I stuff my face into his shoulder.

"Just don't look."

Crash!

One second, I'm within the warmth of my apartment, the next we're jumping through the window. The wintery winds unnecessarily welcomes us. I can hear myself scream, feeling gravity grab at our bodies. We plummet for a short few seconds, and then we abruptly land on something hard. My body is jostled, but I'm still held firmly.

"What the?!" A deeper voice growls out.

"Get Lucy out of here! I'll take care of these fools." Midnight sounds stoic, moving around us.

"Got it."

And we were off again.

"Taft!" The call causes this sadistic cackle, and I can hear the faint kiss of two blades being swung around.

"You've got something we want!" That same voice from the beach. From the bathroom. I recognized him. His tone is different from last time I heard him. He teased that older man, but now he's on a mission.

Either to kill me, or Erik.

"Keep your eyes closed!" Erik says to me, straining as we catapult across the roofs of Crocus' homey section.

Shing!

A scream pierces the air. It takes me a second to realize the scream belonged to me. Erik has to dodge a swipe of a a deadly blade. I find myself looking even though I was told not to. He clutches me tighter, his whole body tenses as we skid back on the roof. The snow making two dark lines of when we slid back.

A cloaked man drops before us, brandishing razor-sharp weapons. He swings them around without much trouble, playing the hilts through his fingers. He licks his lips, eyeing Erik for a brief second before looking at me.

The fear floods through me, seeing my small reflection in the sword. It gleams dangerously in the cold moonlight, awaiting to strike and spill blood.

"Don't make this any harder than it has to be." The green-haired man smirks, positioning both of his identical blades in front of him expertly.

"I know your plan." Erik's voice is laced with venom.

The man's smirk only widens. "Not my plan, but sure."

A pain blossom through my lower belly. I cry out, lurching in Erik's arms. It was unlike any pain I've ever felt before.

"What's wrong, Blondie?!" Erik never takes his eyes off the man.

"I don't ---ah! It hurts!" I wince terribly, the pain intensifying.

"Shit." He curses under his breath. "Hold onto me. Do not let go."

"Oop!" Our opponent cackles again, the swords in his hands glowing, taking different shapes, shrinking into twin daggers. "Looks like we're almost out of time~"

Erik's face is grim. His forehead creases thickly.

"No, no, no..." I whimper shaking my head, trembling under the rippling pain. "It's too early!"

"Ivory predicted this." The man says, bringing a dagger to his lips and licking the sharp point of it. "And whatever she sees..."

The pain tears through me again. I cry out once more agonizingly. I was paralyzed by it. I couldn't describe it just by saying pain. This went far beyond pain. Pain was just there, for a lack of a better word. My lower half was searing, feeling like it was being torn apart by hot needles and nails.

He lurches for us at the blink of an eye.

"...will come to pass!"