**Again I do not own Fairy Tail!**

I'm still getting the feel for this, so please be gentle!

For those who read and reviewed the first chapter, thank you! Love you lots! And as you can see, I'm encouraged to continue. Hopefully you'll continue to enjoy and follow my storyline. See you around!

Chapter 2 A Dragons Pain

He ached. He didn't know why but the pain he felt was different from that of the physical. Physical aches and pains he could ignore; after all of the missions and fights he'd been in his pain tolerance was insanely high. But this. This ache was something different. It made him want to scream out in anger, roar in agony. Something wasn't right. He needed to be somewhere, get someone, but who? Gritting his teeth against each throb fighting him, he struggled to throw off the smothering darkness, only to find he couldn't move. What was wrong with him?

"—do we do? Even Gajeel can't pick up her trail." Someone close by muttered, voice hushed. Natsu could hear the tension and worry lacing those words and he stilled for a moment to listen as more voices reached him in his own personal void.

"And I can't track my key. No matter what has happened in the past, I've always been able to find Lucy through my key and now I can't even do that." Another voice snarled followed by a dull thud.

"If we can't find her through our own means, then how the hell is Salamander going to find her?" The tone of this voice reminded Natsu of storms and electricity. Laxus. Where the hell was he?

"Maybe because they're mates?" A soft voice asked, echoing closer to Natsu's ears, causing a sense of awareness to stir through him.

"Nah. He hasn't claimed her yet so that link hasn't been formed otherwise I'd agree with you shrimp." These words were growled and caused Natsu to tense like he was ready for a fight. He knew that voice.

A small huff was heard in reaction to the nickname before it was followed by more words. "And how would you know whether or not he has? Have you claimed a mate?" Levy asked. Natsu was starting to be able to tell who was who from their voices, and could feel something more stirring from the back of his mind; still he couldn't move though.

"Believe me, you'd know if I had claimed my mate, and if he had. A symbol appears after the claiming and mating, plus I would've been able to smell it on him." A gruff voice, Gajeel, answered her. "The only thing I know is that I knew she was his mate even before he did. The signs were all there, he was just too much of an airhead about it before."

"When did he figure it out?"

"Before the last mission. He came to talk to me about it, and I clued him in on some things. Told him he should take care of it while they were gone. But no, he wanted to wait, and then this thing with Phantoms Fist happened and there wasn't time."

"Does that mean you know who your mate is?" Levy asked in honest fascination. Being in a guild with not one, not two, not three, but FOUR dragonslayers made her thirst for knowledge about dragons endless and when not doing research for missions could often be found reading all she could about dragons. She had read about how a dragon or dragon slayer would know who their mate was, but the mate wouldn't know until they were approached by the dragon.

'Mate….that's right….he knew his mate….Lucy….'

Natsu could hear a throat clearing, and in his minds eye could just imagine Gajeel glancing away from the bookworm with his cheeks stained red. "Yea I know who it is, but she's not ready yet, so don't ask." Gajeel answered gruffly.

Natsu knew who Gajeels mate was, even with being an airhead, and to save the metal head from further questioning, and knowing that something else was wrong, Natsu was able to open his eyes with a pained groan, drawing the attention of those around him.

"About damn time Natsu!" Loke snapped, stepping closer and leaning down to check Natsu over. Past his shoulder Natsu could see those who he had already heard, along with Wendy sitting quietly close by. Looking around he found more empty beds, and lights shining brightly above him.

"Where the hell am I?" Natsu croaked, clearing his throat when he felt his throat catch around his words.

"Where else? The guilds infirmary. And before you ask, you've been out of it for a week." Levy answered, settling her slight weight down on the edge of his bed.

"Wait-a week? Where is everyone? Erza? Gray? Lucy? Wait-where's Lucy?!" Natsu snarled before sitting up quickly only to grasp his head as it tried to roll of his shoulders in pain. The drawn out silence was torture for him; with a deep breath he managed to focus past the pounding in his head and looked up to find that the others were either staring at their feet or exchanging worried looks. "Dammit, where is she?" He asked quietly, watching as each person there flinched. Even Laxus flinched, knowing that as soon as Natsu knew what had happened, all hell was going to break lose. Usually the absence of the guilds one and only celestial mage wouldn't bother Laxus, but when he had found out she was the salamanders mate…even he had started to keep an eye on her for everyones safety. Gritting his teeth, he lifted his gaze to meet Natsus eyes straight on.

"We don't know. It's been a week since she was taken, since you, Erza, Gray, and Loke were freed from the runes that you were stuck in, and Lucy's smell doesn't go beyond where the fight was. Gajeel and I couldn't even pick up her scent, and Loke hasn't been able to track his key." Laxus answered bluntly, everyone shifting as they braced themselves for Natsus reaction. Even Levy and Loke quickly stepped away from him as Laxus had spoken, knowing that as soon as Natsu realized what he'd heard was not what he had wanted to hear. Lazus watched from the corner of his eye as Gajeel eased himself in front of Levy and started backing up slowly as the heat radiating from the fire dragon slayer increased dramatically, knowing that he was about to explode in 4….3….2….

"DAAAMMMIIIITTTT!"

The wave of fire that burst from Natsu at that point was strong enough to knock everyone across the room, sending beds and tables flying. Any other time Laxus and Gajeel would've beaten the crap out of him for losing control like this, but they knew better this time. A dragon slayers mate was to be protected at all costs, even the cost of the dragon slayers life, and to have not claimed said mate and not been able to protect her was something that no dragon ever wanted to go through. Just the idea of having something like this happen to either of their mates had Laxus's and Gajeels inner dragon roaring in denial.

Hissing in pain, everyone slowly managed to get back to their feet, Gajeel helping Levy to hers, and looked to find that Natsu was no longer on his bed, but rather at the door to the infirmary, pounding at the rune wall that had been placed by Freed as a precaution.

"Natsu. Natsu!. Dammit Natsu you can't do anything right now!" Loke shouted, knowing that his friend wasn't thinking straight.

"Yes I can! I have to go after her! They could be doing anything to her right now and it's all my fault!" Natsu roared, throwing his body against the door and runes repeatedly. He was so hell bent on getting past the runes that the rest of the world had faded for him and he didn't even notice the looks of pain and understanding the other slayers gave him before Laxus stepped forward and, with a grimace, called down a bolt of lightning strong enough to knock Natsu back out.

Letting out a tired sigh, Laxus and Gajeel bent down to pick him up and deposit him once more on the bed he'd been on. The only bed still where it belonged rather than tossed across the room. Once he was situated, Loke pulled up a chair to keep an eye on him while the others left the room to get some food. They knew it wouldn't be long before Natsu was awake again, but hopefully they'd have some new information by that time.


She couldn't move….her head was pounding and the room spun before her eyes as she managed to crack them open. She couldn't tell up from down, or where she was. She just knew she was in a place full of shadows and could feel the rough texture of straw across her bare back. Biting back the whimper that wanted to escape, Lucy managed to move her eyes around herself, seeing that she was in some kind of cell. What looked like a bowl of water was next to her, and immediately she tried to reach for it, only to find that part of her pain was coming from her arms being restrained above her head. Sighing in frustration, Lucy let her head fall back onto a part of her arm. She didn't know how long she had been there and she was getting tired of being the one to get kidnapped. There were times she swore she had a neon sign on her ass asking to be stolen away.

Letting out another huff of breath, Lucy took another look around at the otherwise empty cell before turning her thoughts to her own body to assess what damage there was. Shifting slightly, she flexed her hands, her feet, took a deep breath, bent and straightened her legs only to find that nothing was broken. She did feel like something was missing though. Shifting again it took her a moment to realize that she familiar weight of her whip and keys were missing. Looking back up at the ceiling, Lucy took a few deep breaths to calm her nerves to keep from panicking.

"Ah, so you're awake finally." A voice snapped through the dimness of the cell, claiming Lucy's attention to the other side of the bars at the front of the cell. A shadowed tall figure could be seen, much like the night when she had been taken. Rather than respond, Lucy kept her mouth shut and glared at the person. Honestly if her glare could be changed into any of her friends powers, the person probably would've been killed from the look alone.

"Now now Lady Lucy, don't be that way. We would put you up in a more comfortable room if we knew that you wouldn't run away. However, we know that's not to be the case, so you must stay here." The person, sounding muffled, explained even as they shifted closer to the bars.

"What the hell do you want with me?" Lucy gritted out after a few moments of terse silence. "And how long have I been here?"

"It's been almost a month since you've been here, and with the full moon coming up in a few days, you'll finally be of use to us. You and your celestial spirits. And your little fairy friends haven't even bothered to look for you." The voice was calm but still Lucy could hear the smugness in the tone.

"NO! Do what you want with me but leave my spirits out of this!" Lucy screamed, starting to yank on her chains to try and free her wrists.

"No can do my dear. To go forward with our plans we need you and your spirits. Anna, come get started." With that said, the person stepped away to show the child in white clothing standing behind them. Again, a look of boredom was on the childs face as she stepped forward and with a wave of her hand opened and entered the cell.

"Wait-what are you going to do to me?!" Lucy snarled, yanking harder on her arms and trying to get as far from the child as possible.

"Don't worry, we're not going to kill you. We don't have our own celestial mage. We are however, going to have plenty of fun with you." Anna answered, stepping closer to lift her hands toward Lucy. As the childs blood aura started snaking around Lucy once again, Lucy could feel it forcing itself into her skin, into her mind, and that was when she knew what they were going to do.

She screamed.


"NATSUUU!"

Loke flailed and landed with a thud on the floor from where he had been sitting in a chair next to Natsu even as Natsu shot up-right, eyes wide and panting like he'd just been in a massive battle.

"LUCY!" Natsu yelled before burying his face in his hands as sobs shook his body. Shakily Loke managed to climb back into his seat, running trembling fingers through his mane of orange hair. A bare moment later the sound of multiple sprinting footsteps could be heard followed by the infirmary door flying open to slam against a wall. Laxus, Gajeel, Wendy, Levy, Freed, and the three exceeds tumbled into the room before rushing over to surround Natsu and Loke.

"What the hell happened?!" Laxus demanded, watching the other fire dragon slayer closely. He was used to seeing Natsu cry at times, but this…this was a whole new level of crying that he knew only came from being away from an in danger mate. Shooting a quick glance at Gajeel and Wendy, he saw that they could tell this was different from what Natsu usually felt as well and it was worrying even them.

"We don't entirely know, we just know that it has to do with Lucy." Loke answered quietly, gaining everyones attention. "I was dozing here and the next thing I know I'm in an amount of pain that I've never felt before, and would have sworn I heard Lucy screaming, and then Natsu was awake and that was probably him you heard yelling for her."

Bodies tensed in worry and anger for their fellow guildmate rippled through each person even as magical energy started pulsing around them.

"What does that mean for Lucy then?" Levy asked quietly, watching Natsu with concern as he continued to shudder and cry into his hands. Before anyone could find some sort of answer for her, a cry of pain was heard. Levy swung about to see where it came from only to see Loke bent over in his chair, clutching at his chest and panting with a look of fear taking over him. Acting before thinking, Levy slid off the bed to kneel before him, grasping his shoulders to brace him.

"Loke! What is it? What's wrong?" Wendy asked while stepping closer.

"Sh-she's not….she's not dead…but…she's dying!" Loke panted through gritted teeth. A keening wail sounded from the bed and without looking, Levy knew that Lokes' words had reached Natsu. Wincing at the sound of his cry, Levy was able to glance down to where Loke was clutching his fist to find that some sort of blood colored aura was showing past his fingers and spreading slowly to the rest of him.

Everyone cringed as the wail from Natsu got louder but not a single one of them had the heart to get shut him up. This was a sound that no one ever wanted to hear again. The sound of a dragon on the verge of losing his mate.