Her breath seemed to shake along with her as she couldn't quite draw in a full lungful. Maybe her lungs were shaking, too, and that was why she could scarcely breathe.
"Scared, Lucy-chan?" The blonde flinched when an amused chuckle rang out, echoing eerily in the horror movie-like underground dungeon. "Don't worry. If Fairy Tail is truly your nakama, then they'll save you when they realize you're missing. Either way, its their fault if anything happens to you."
Somehow, Lucy summoned up the courage to snap at him, "Jerk, how can you say that it's their fault if you beat me up!" She was about to say more, but the man behind all of this stepped out of the shadows created by the few candles around the room and her voice died out as a pathetic whimper.
Yasuke Ryuu was a cleverly cruel man. His name only became famous recently, but it was rumored that, in one night, he killed his entire village. Despite his evil nature, Ryuu was somehow cute in appearance, with shaggy black hair and wide brown eyes better suited on a little kid than a murderer.
Ryuu leaned forward, cupping her face with his hands and forcing her to look at him; no matter how hard she struggled, he had tied her tight to the chair and she wasn't budging. "Listen, sweet stuff, I'll cut you a deal. Tell me your team's weaknesses. I don't need all of them, don't freak out!" He laughed when Lucy gaped at him, horrified by the idea of betraying her nakama. "I just need the dragon slayers."
"S-shut up, you jerk! I'll never betray my nakama!" She screamed, letting out all of her anger and fear with that. "Ugh!"
Ryuu stared at the celestial mage, watching her cheek redden. His 'nice guy' act vanished and he grabbed her throat, reveling in her look of terror. "Don't you dare raise your voice at me, bitch. It's fine if you don't want to tell me, I'll get whatever I want either the easy way or the hard way. Your choice."
Her answer was obvious as she glared at him, her pride wounded with being slapped in the face.
"Alright then. I was gonna wait until Fairy Tail tried to get you out of here, but it's no problem if we do this now."
Grabbing her hair, Ryuu punched her cheek, her hair pulled painfully as her head whipped to the side. He did it again and again, then let go of her golden locks, now a bit tangled, with a flourish, knocking her head back. He had to give her credit, not once did she cry out. Instead, the dark look in her eyes made him chuckle. This chick had no idea what real pain was.
However, just as he was going to rough her up some more, a wicked plan came to mind.
"Hey, Mira! Have you seen Lucy?"
The white haired woman shook her head, "Last I saw her was this morning and its almost dark now, Natsu. Have you tried her apartment?"
The dragon slayer collapsed onto a bar stool, groaning in frustration. "I can't find her anywhere! I've tried her house, the mall, restaurants - I even asked those fishermen that always tell Lucy to be careful! How can she just disappear?"
"Who disappeared? Happy?"
Natsu didn't bother looking up at Gray as Erza sat down beside him. "Lucy. Happy went to look for her in the forest and I just got back from turning Magnolia upside-down. We've been looking for her all day!"
"What do you need Lucy so much for today?" The swords-woman, however, also didn't look at him when she talked and instead tucked into her favorite cake that Mirajane always saved for her. But Gray noticed the blush that marked his cheeks.
Just as the ice mage was about to laugh and sing mockingly out loud "~Natsu loves Lucy! Natsu loves Lucy!~" a certain blue, hysterical cat burst in, throwing the doors open in a very un-Happy way. Everyone stopped what they were doing to stare, but he went straight to the pink haired boy.
"Na-Natsu!" He nearly screamed, tears flattening the short fur on his face and staining them a dark blue, "I-it's Lucy!"
"What happened?" Although Natsu said it, everyone in the guild was thinking it, previous activities completely forgotten as the entire Fairy Tail listened intensely.
The azure cat was so frantic that he could barely speak and the guild had to struggle to understand what he said, "I-I was in t-the forest wh-when a m-man c-came up to m-me. Oh, Natsu, I didn't stand a chance against him! T-then h-he showed me L-Lucy's w-whip and s-said . . . he s-said," Happy's voice broke and at this point, Fairy Tail was terrified at what he was going to say next. "H-he said t-that we ne-needed to w-watch t-this."
Mira gently took the scroll from the cat, recognizing the enchantment on it. "It's meant for you, Natsu. You need to light it on fire in order to - ahh!"
Without waiting for an explanation, he grabbed it and lit it up. He was far more serious than anyone in Fairy Tail had ever seen him and if they were being honest, they were a bit scared. When the dragon slayer placed it on the ground, a sort-of projection, like a video, showed itself on the wall, depicting a cute young man with dark clothes against a dark background. The only thing clearly visible was his wide brown eyes and shaggy black hair. However, no one fell for the cute look. His face was infamous everywhere, especially recently. Yasuke Ryuu.
"Greetings, Fairy Tail. This is intended for Natsu-san, but I'm sure your entire guild nosed their way into this. But it doesn't matter. Normally, I don't deal with mages and guilds, so forgive any unintended insults or remarks due to my lack of knowledge. However, I have heard a lot about your fire dragon slayer magic, Natsu-san. I'd like to test my strength against you in a one-on-one battle. But I've done my homework and, from what I've gathered, you fight the hardest when someone close to you is in danger, no? So watch closely, Dragoneel Natsu-san."
Ryuu turned and began to walk, but wherever he was, it was far too dark to see anything other than Yasuke himself. However, the body tied to a chair was sitting right in the light, visible for everyone to see.
"Lucy!" Natsu roared, momentarily forgetting that they were watching a video and that this had already happened.
"As you can see, I have Heartfillia Lucy-chan. And now, I'm going to torture her for you, Natsu-san. I sincerely hope that this will give you the incentive to truly fight me. Maybe, if torture isn't enough, I'll just kill her."
An equal amount of guilt and fury built up in the pink haired boy, but there was nothing he could do but watch in agony as Ryuu grabbed Lucy's pinkie and snapped the bone easily, leaving it bent unnaturally. She screamed through clenched teeth, determined to hold back as much as possible with her entire guild's eyes on her. She tried to be strong for them, to uphold the name Fairy Tail with as much dignity as she could muster.
One after the other, all the fingers in her left hand were twisted and mangled, at funny angles. Despite the sickening pain shooting up her arm, she didn't let a single tear fall.
"You bastard!" Natsu howled, a small flame flickering around him in response to his hateful wrath.
Ryuu didn't stop at that, however, and drew a knife from his belt. He ignored Fairy Tail - not once did he glance at the source of the spell like he did when directly addressing them - and slowly pressed the blade to her arm. The black haired man had moved so that Fairy Tail had a unobstructed view of her face and body. The terror stamped on her pretty features was enough to send the guild's blood-lust through the roof.
While the blade was pressing into her, he didn't cut her yet. "You still have a choice, Lucy-chan." The man leaned closer, his lips brushing against her ear. A chain wrapped around her neck and anchored to the chair prevented her from moving her head much, but her torso shifted away anyway. Her shaking got worse as she squeezed her eyes shut. Natsu could almost smell her fear, he felt so strongly for her. "Tell me his weakness and I won't hurt you anymore. Tell me Natsu's weakness."
All the color drained from Natsu's face and his stomach lurched. This was all his fault. Lucy, his Lucy, was being tortured because of him. He wanted to scream, cry, and kill all at the same time. He didn't realize it, but he was baring his teeth in a way that made him looked damn near terrifying.
Lucy, with a furious glint in her eyes, snapped at him with her teeth, anger overriding fear for a brief moment. With her obvious but unspoken answer, Ryuu plunged the blade into her arm, twisting it savagely. This time, her scream was a lot louder and a few tears trickled down her face. Natsu covered his ears, there was no way he could listen to her pained shriek without killing something. Erza, Gray, and Happy felt the same way.
Ryuu was vicious and didn't let up, slicing her arms, legs, and midriff. But all of his cuts were superficial, shallow. She was bloody, but nothing was life threatening and even the cuts weren't very painful; since the stab wound on her arm, she hadn't screamed once.
"Stupid girl," Ryuu growled. "If you think that was bad, just wait. I got something special for you. But first . . ." Holding the knife tightly, the man placed the tip at her side, carefully positioning it so it would encounter no vital organs. Then, stroking her hair, he stabbed her slowly.
Natsu could only watch in torment as the woman he loved began to cry out in agony, the chains holding her to the chair beginning to cut into her skin with her struggling. The dragon slayer's fisted so tightly that he drew blood, staring helplessly as tears ran down Lucy's face.
Being wounded in battle was about as different from a slow, deliberate stab as night was from day. In a fight, the adrenaline was racing, sweeping the pain away and even in the aftermath, it was usually drowned out by the emotions of either a win or loss. However, torture like this, the only thing affecting a body was fear. Unlike adrenaline and the feelings of battle, terror amplified pain. Natsu was sure that Lucy was going through tremendous amounts of both of those. And damn it all, Ryuu was smirking.
Finally, after those tortuous, slow moments, the knife had sunk up to its hilt, Lucy's blood staining Ryuu's hand red.
"B-bastard," she gasped out, a trickle of blood running down her chin as she coughed, an action that only served to twist the blade in her a little more.
"Hush, bitch. I'm nowhere near done yet." When she looked away, he grabbed a fistful of blond tresses and held her head up so she was staring at the source of the spell - staring right at Fairy Tail, inadvertently. "See that? I'm going to send a copy of this to your nakama. I wonder how they'll react when they see this?"
"N-no! Don't - agh!" Her face whipped to the side as he slapped her again.
"Why not? You know, the more I think about it, the less I am convinced that Fairy Tail is really your nakama." Inwardly, he grinned when he sensed her stiffen. Nothing like a little psychological torture to accompany the physical.
"Wh-what? W-why?" Lucy whimpered, a sound that tore Natsu to pieces, when the black haired man laid a hand gently on her mangled fingers.
"Think about it, Lucy-chan. So far, all you've done is make everyone else go out of their way to save you. When you and Natsu-san first met, he had to save your ass from some low-level punk and - out of pity, I imagine - invited you to join Fairy Tail. Then you got stuck with Gray and Erza, who have gotten hurt on more than one occasion saving you because you were too weak to do anything but hide behind your spirits. Have you wondered why Leo the Lion hasn't shown up yet to save the day? Because he hates you, deep down, and wants you to die so he can be free again. Eeeeveryone hates you, Lucy-chan. No one would care if I took this knife," he pressed it against her neck, "and slit your throat right now. No one is going to save you. I'll torture you until you can't stand the pain anymore, then I'll cut you up some more.
"You're going to die here, Lucy-chan, and there won't be a person damn sad about it."
The guild was silent, some with hands over their mouths, some frozen in shock, but all of them were mad as hell. However, even Laxus, who was as pissed as anyone else, was wary of Team Natsu. Their wrath seemed to suffocate everyone in the building, like drowning. And the heat. Natsu was steaming but he, along with everyone in Fairy Tail, was helpless. If Ryuu wanted to fight him, then he'd reveal his location at the end. Wait a minute . . .
"Levi!" Everyone jumped, not expecting Natsu to yell. "Can you fast forward it or something? I can't watch another minute of this shit! I need to know where this guy is so I can burn him to ashes!"
The pain and anguish on her face turned to resolve as she nodded resolutely, having unconsciously worked out what lines to add already. As soon as she did so, the scene moved forward quickly. They could still see what happened to her, but at least they couldn't hear her scream, however little that eased them. They watched as he beat her around some more, whipped her with her own weapon, choked her until she barely twitched, bent her arms unnaturally. He untied her and proceeded to kick and whip her.
However, something happened - a distraction, maybe - and Lucy made a break for it. Since the beginning of the video, every member of Fairy Tail had already 'accepted' that Lucy was going to be tortured thoroughly. A small spark of hope ignited in Natsu when he saw her run off.
But Ryuu wasn't infamous for nothing and as he chased her, the spell followed, giving everyone a view of the chase. Levi's spell suddenly wore off, something that should be impossible as it should have affected the core of the spell, and the projection returned to it's original pacing.
"Fairy Tail, I have placed another, underlying spell that should have activated by now. It will render any modifications to my original spell null; this is to make sure you do not skip ahead anymore, as I predicted you would. It's the grand finale." He hardly seemed out of breath even as he chased Lucy outside into a forest. "Don't worry, the video is almost over. See, I made sure she was able to make a run for it. That way, I could run her into my trap." As if on cue, Lucy's surprised shriek cut in and Ryuu grinned darkly.
The origin of the spell shifted and they saw the blonde mage dangling suspended a few feet off the ground, caught in a net. Her despair turned to anger and she screamed obscenities at the man, cursing him, his mother, and every breath he took. Any other time, Fairy Tail might have been surprised at her foul mouth, but it was lost in their agreement with her words. Ryuu was the worst kind of man.
The black haired man tsked, shaking his head and ignoring her spiteful and colorful words. "Now, Lucy-chan, that's not very nice. I'd ask you to apologize, but I know a different way for you to make it up to me." Reaching behind a tree, he revealed a club, the same length and a little thicker than a baseball bat, and if one peered hard enough, stained a faint red. He smacked it against his hand a couple of times, hoping to unnerve the blonde. His actions had the desired affect and Lucy's mild brown eyes widened, realizing what he intended to do.
"You bastard . . ." Lucy whispered before the first blow landed, the sickening crunch of her arm shooting through Fairy tail's ears, as well as the following scream. Ryuu swung it again, this time hitting her legs. Again and again he did this, swinging the heavy club at her arms, side, back, legs, gut (which was partially covered by her arms, but that didn't matter to Ryuu). But he avoided her upper torso. It would not be beneficial for him to accidentally kill her with a miss-placed hit. The celestial mage was far more useful to him alive. Plus all he wanted was to fight Natsu-san, not the entire Fairy Tail.
It was only when Lucy had gone completely limp and silent that Ryuu stopped. The blonde was unrecognizable, her skin a pattern of purples, reds, and blacks, and even her hair was dark with dried blood. Her mangled hand dangled lifelessly out of a gap in the net and the black haired man was worried for a moment that he had killed her. Continuing to ignore Fairy Tail, he stepped closer to her and grabbed her broken hand, squeezing harshly. Even unconscious and damn near dead, she moaned softly, twitching away from the source of her discomfort. Ryuu smirked, pleased with his handiwork, finally turning around and looking at Fairy Tail.
"Did you enjoy our little show, Natsu-san?" He purred, sticking a hand in the net and stroking the top of Lucy's head, the only part that was still blonde. "As I said in the beginning, I will reveal my location to you. However, I only want to fight you, Natsu-san, and not your entire guild. You may bring your team along with you, and I would even suggest to bring that air dragon slayer, the healer, but I cannot allow them to interfere. If they do, I will not hesitate to kill Lucy-chan.
"I am in the forest east of Magnolia, about three miles away, in an abandoned shack. I'll be waiting, but you'd better hurry. I'm honestly not sure how long Miss Lucy-chan here can survive with these injuries." And with that, the spell ended and the scroll crumbled to dust.
As soon as the video ended, Natsu was already gone, taking the door off of its henge in his bottomless wrath. Someone was going to die, he was sure of it. And it damn well wasn't going to be anyone in Fairy Tail. Erza, Wendy, and Gray followed suit, while Happy flew alongside Natsu. The rest of Fairy Tail stayed behind, if only for Lucy's sake. And if Natsu couldn't bring her back, then no one could.
Team Natsu ran to Ryuu's hideout in absolute silence. There was nothing to say, really; they were all on the same page. Find Ryuu, get Lucy to Wendy or vice-versa, and kill Ryuu. Simple as that. No fanfare. No pleasantries. No explanations.
Just good, old fashioned revenge.