The sound of rending metal filled the air as the doors to the lifts buckled and were torn away from their roots. The Iron Dragon Slayer holding them hefted them to the side with seemingly no effort at all, and peered into the open space beyond.
"The hell are we supposed to go now?" he asked.
"We're on the eighth floor now," Mavis slipped past him and out into the air, looking up through the dark space and the many doors at seemingly random places above them. Some of them didn't even look like they were built into walls, but were just hanging in empty space. "We've got to get up to the fourth floor if we want to join up with the others. And I believe I can see an open door on that level from here. See," she pointed up and those that could actually look in through the broken doors could indeed see another set higher above that looked like they'd been smashed in.
"That must be where the others went," Gray agreed.
"We should move quickly," Gildarts noted, his arm outstretched into the corridor they were standing in to create a white lattice of lines from floor to ceiling, causing the spells being fired at them to splinter to pieces and dissipate before they reached them. For despite his previous warning, after the Dementors had backed away it had not taken long before more Ministry officials tracked them down. It seemed in view of the attack most of the civilians had already fled the Ministry, leaving behind only those who were bold enough to try and take Fairy Tail down. "These guys just don't seem to be willing to leave us alone."
"Why do we always seem to make enemies somehow everywhere we go," Levy murmured right before a red Stunning spell slammed into the wall inches from her shoulder. She yelped and almost fell over, whirling around to see none other than Rufus Scrimgeour himself coming hurtling towards them.
"Stand down, all you you!" the head of the Auror Office bristled as he led a couple of other high-ranking Aurors forward. "Stand down and accept arrest or you shall only make things worse for yourself!" And he lashed out with his wand again, along with the others, to fire three consecutive red light beams right towards Levy's stomach.
"Levy! Get back!" Gajeel instantly whirled around, but Levy had been ready for the attack this time and flung her hands up in the direction of the oncoming spells.
"Solid Script: Guard!" she shouted, and with a flash the word GUARD appeared in brown letters in front of her, the spells crashing into it and fizzling out of existence before Levy swung her hands down and added, "Solid Script: Hole!" This spell generated the word actually on the floor and it swept down the hallway towards the oncoming three. Scrimgeour quickly leapt into the air to avoid it, but the other two were not quick enough and when the word touched their feet they suddenly fell straight through the floor, yelling as they plummeted down to the level below.
Scrimgeour landed next to the gaping hole in the corridor behind him and growled as he looked over his shoulder at it. "What kind of unnatural magic…?" he growled before suddenly he was tossed backwards by a blast of wind generated from another of Levy's words, and with a yell he plummeted straight down into the hole himself.
Levy sighed and turned back to face the others, who all had rather blank expressions on seeing this little display. "What?" she demanded, folding her arms. "It's not like I don't have any battle skills at all even if they're not that strong, is it?"
"Geehee!" Gajeel grinned. "That magic has some potential if its used right."
But all his compliment did was make Levy flinch and turn away from him, as if the very sound of his voice terrified the life out of her. Gajeel scowled in irritation and had to resist the urge to flatten something before he changed the subject and demanded, "So, how are we getting up there? Lily, Blue Cat, looks like you're up."
"We don't have time to wait around for them to make multiple trips," Gray interrupted before either of the Exceed could make a move, slamming his hands together in readiness for his next move. "We all have to get up there now!" And he slammed his hands down into the floor by the lift doors and suddenly a jet of ice shot upwards through the air, curving its way around the lift rails until it connected the door to the open one higher up and solidified into ice stairs.
Gray altered the properties of the ice to make sure it wouldn't be slippery, before he yelled, "Come on then," and instantly charged up it, the others piling in behind him. Gildarts ushered Levy inside ahead of him and ran up behind her, but when he reached the tenth step he turned and punched down onto the ninth one, disintegrating the bottom steps into fragments to make sure they wouldn't be followed before he turned to follow the others. The staircase had no real visible means of support, but they didn't have to since they were being held in place by Gray's magic.
Lily and Happy weaved their way through the lift space under their own power while the others ran, but as they flew Happy spotted something out the corner of his eye. When he turned to look, he abruptly gasped and yelled, "LOOK OUT!" veering around in a tight circle and crashing straight into Lily, knocking him out of the way of another red flash of light that skewed past their tails and slammed into the staircase right in front of Gray, who skidded to a stop and looked up with a glare.
"Now what?" he muttered, but his eyes widened slightly when he saw a phalanx of Ministry officials zipping their way in from above, about ten in total riding on broomsticks. It seemed the Ministry had got word that grounding the lifts was not stopping the intruders from moving about their headquarters as they pleased and were now attempting alternative methods to stop their progress.
"Get down!" Gajeel yelled as a couple of brooms whizzed in towards them. The Iron Dragon Slayer dodged backwards to avoid being clipped by one and spun around as another came swooping in to fire a Reductor Curse right at him. He leapt backwards as the curse impacted the stairs and splintered the ice, sending it cascading down into the lift, but even in mid-air Gajeel spun around and seized the man even as he tried to run past, scooping him off the broom and slamming him down into the stairs with a yell of pain.
"Why you little…!" Gajeel's fist was already in the air, ready to pound down into the man's face, but a sharp scream from behind him halted him in his tracks, and he glanced back to where Levy was staring at him with wide-eyes from across the gap in the bridge, hand covering her mouth. Gajeel hesitated, and that was just long enough for the man to suddenly lash up with his wand and hit Gajeel right in the chest with a Stunning Spell.
"Nnngh!" Gajeel gasped, his hand going slack as he let go of the man's robes. He'd suddenly gotten rather woozy, and he teetered on his feet, struggling to clear his head. The man looked rather shocked that the spell had not been as instantly effective as he'd expected but he quickly lashed up with two more that impacted with Gajeel's stomach. He promptly blacked out and tipped backwards, plummeting through the gap in the stairs and dropping like a stone.
"NO!" Levy yelled in horror, dashing to the edge and watching him fall.
"Bastard!" Gray seized the man by the back of his robes and slammed a fist into his gut to knock him out.
"Gajeel!" Lily shouted.
"I've got him!" Happy cried and whooshed down in pursuit of the falling man, dodging a few more lift rails and scooping him up by the back of his shirt, hoisting him up and into the air again moments before he crashed into the bottom.
Levy sighed in relief as the blue cat transported him back up to them and Gray fixed the gap in the stairs, but there were more brooms swarming around them, swerving in from every angle and raining spells on them. Gildarts hurried created a Crash Dome around them that blocked every spell - and there were a wide variety - but he grunted and cursed under his breath.
"I can't strike back," he yelled as Happy transported Gajeel back up and laid him on the ice stairs. "If I do I could knock them off those brooms and send them to their deaths!"
"Happy!" Lily yelled. "Come on! It's up to us."
"Aye sir!" Happy called. "You guys go on! We'll handle these guys!"
"But… are you sure…?" Levy started.
"No time for that," Gray cut her off. "Let's move. Levy, help me with Gajeel!"
Levy stiffened as Gray threw one of Gajeel's arms around his shoulder and hoisted him up. Dear gosh, what was going on with her!? She'd just been horrified when she'd seen him fall but now she was suddenly back to being scared of him, even though he was unconscious. Images abruptly flowed through her head of him suddenly waking up and snapping her neck like a twig or something and she drew back, bile rising in her throat both at the thought and at the sheer fact she was having it!
What the heck? She knew he wasn't like that now! She knew he wouldn't do it! She'd had his arm around her shoulders before now. Why couldn't she get these images out of her head!? Even now when he needed her help.
Fortunately Gildarts saved her the trouble by squeezing past her and hoisting him up by the other arm, holding it under his own like a bedroll and helping Gray move the unconscious Dragon Slayer up the stairs. Levy stood there for a moment, trembling with anger and shame at herself for hesitating like that, before she hurried after them as well.