Dark Magnolia

A/N: I shall continue, because why not. Please enjoy and reviews are always welcome. :3

Chapter 2: Screams

"If only you had never been born..." The red eyed shadow spoke to Lucy as the darkness once more swarmed around her, clawing at her skin. Her body floated within a void like place, the only other person... thing, was the monster that haunted her.

"We were so happy together... but then you came along..." The shadow continued, its voice cold and emotionless as it stared at her, its pearly eyes examining her deeply.

The two would continue to float there for what felt like an eternity, their gazes never leaving the other. One face was emotionless, the other wore a terrified expression, this creature always scared her.

"Forgive me Lucy, mother loves you..." The voice spoke after awhile, it no longer sounded distorted but instead calm and gentle, the voice of her mother.

X

A heavy metallic and irony smell hung in the air, the smell was akin to blood but its source was unknown to her as she sat in that dark windowless room amongst a few other females. A lone door would creak open as the man named Bora entered the scene, his arms folded while he looked at his captives.

Lucy would attempt to move but that only proved in-vain as she realised just how numb her legs felt, the effects of whatever drug that was used on her were still active. Her arms were bound behind herself, tied together roughly with a piece of rope.

"What a lovely collection." Bora smirked as he glanced around the room, looking over each female as they voiced their distress, muffled by the gags placed in their mouths.

Two other men would enter into the room behind Bora, butch men that looked nothing more then casual thugs, it at least confirmed that he wasn't working alone as he kidnapped women.

"L-Let us go, you bastard!" A voice shouted from behind Lucy, a gag in one of the ladies mouths had apparently not been applied properly and as a result had fallen out. Lucy's eyes widened in shock, she couldn't believe what she was hearing, the woman was either brave or stupid, probably both.

Bora turned his dark gaze in her direction causing Lucy to tense up and panic, her heart beating against her chest almost painfully as he started to open his mouth.

"While I do love a feisty woman, I'm really not in the mood right now. Cut her tongue out." He spoke, motioning for the men to retrieve the woman and commit the deed.

"What!? No please! Let me go! Stop!" The woman screamed behind Lucy, as the two men made their way towards the poor lady and dragged her off as she pleaded desperately for help. Tears had started to well up within Lucy's eyes, she was so scared. She prayed that someone would come to save her from this nightmare.

The woman's screams could be heard in the distance as Lucy closed her eyes, finding a sort of comfort behind the darkness of her eyelids, she could not begin to imagine the sort of pain that the woman would go through, the thought alone made her want to throw up.

"As you hopefully know by now, you belong to me, as such, I think it is only right that I get to try out my new 'merchandise'." The cruel man proclaimed as he once again scanned the helpless women over for a few moments, eventually picking one out.

A Red haired teenager was his victim, she looked to be younger then Lucy. The poor thing could only cry, visibly too weak from the effects of the drug to resist. Bora had made his way over to the girl, grabbing her by her hair as he roughly stood her up onto her feet with little resistance. After leading the girl away, Lucy and the others could only look down onto the ground in despair as they awaited their own fates.

X

Loke had been making his way back from the Dessert shop, his chest felt terribly tight and constricted, his gut instinct told him that maybe he should of escorted Lucy back to her apartments. He suddenly felt like an idiot as he turned on his heel in the other direction, his hand digging through his pocket for his mobile phone. He was glad that he had at least gotten her number as they made their way around the city prior.

Coincidently, upon taking out his phone it had started to vibrate within his palm, someone was trying to call him.

"Hello?" He called out into the device after he swiped it across and lifted it up to his ear to answer it.

"Yo, It's Gray." The voice on the other end greeted simply.

"What's up? I was going to head back to the guild after I checked up on something." Loke replied, he could tell it was Gray from the simplistic tone he used to speak.

"I was tailing that girl you were wit-..." Gray responded back but was abruptly cut off by Loke.

"Tailing!? The heck man, I was with her not even an hour ago and you're already stalking her." Loke choked, did he think she was a suspect or something?

"I was just making sure that she made it back safely, but I failed..." He announced, his voice sounded grim.

"What do you mean, 'Failed'?" Loke narrowed his eyes while he asked the question.

"Well, she randomly started to panic and took off running. I could just about make out that she approached some guy and as I got there, they were long gone. I think there might have been a struggle, there's an I-Pod lying on the ground where they stood."

"Damn it all, where are you right now?" Loke asked, gritting his teeth. He SHOULD have escorted her back, he felt like such an idiot.

"Lockly Street."Gray answered simply on the other side.

"Al-right, I'm heading there now." Loke continued, ending the call as he took off into the direction of said street.

X

It had taken awhile but eventually the pair had met up once more on said street. The sun having now completely set as the moon made its presence known, the street lights around them had turned on as if to greet the darkness. Loke was starting to grow a little impatient, if it was Bora who had taken Lucy then it was only a matter of time before her remains were found in a back alley somewhere.

"So... what do you plan on doing?" Gray asked after awhile, his eyes watched as Loke paced backwards and fourth in front of him, concern written all over his face.

"I'm thinking!" Loke all but shouted causing Gray to flinch backwards slightly, he proceeded to chew on his fingernail subconsciously as he paced about.

They had remained like that for awhile, contemplating their next course of action but having no idea where to start since Bora's whereabouts were currently unknown. After awhile, Gray had received a phone call which he shortly answered. Loke could only tap his foot impatiently as he watched Gray speak into the phone, conversing with the person on the other end.

"Hello, Gray here."

"Oh, how are you holding up?"

"What!? Already?"

"Aright, we'll meet you there." Gray ended the call once he was finished, turning his gaze back to meet Loke.

"Who was that?" He asked, his curiosity piqued.

"That was Erza, one of her 'contacts' has apparently discovered Bora's hideout. She wants us to meet up with her outside some abandoned factory." Gray answered, soon after the pair took off in the direction of the building.

X

It was now the dead of a night, an abandoned factory was illuminated by the full moon that towered above in the night sky. The stars were barely visible, most hidden away by the lights of the city. Resting against a brick wall next to a metallic gate just outside of the factory, stood a lone female. Bright Red vibrant hair flowed halfway down her back as she stood, arms folded with her eyes closed.

Erza Scarlet had been waiting well over twenty minutes for the two men to arrive, late as usual especially when there were lives in danger, she was very annoyed. In all of her annoyance however, she could never hate the pair, they were like family to her, more-so with Gray as he was her would-be brother in law. Next to her feet sat a black suit-case, she planned on opening it and sharing the contents of which with the two males when they arrived.

Erza had been about a minute away from taking out her phone to check in on Gray when a loud voice had called out towards her causing her face to pale and eyes to widen in shock and anger, it was Loke.

"Hey Erza, sorry to keep you waiting!" He had shouted in her direction, waving his hand about to catch her attention, oblivious to the fact that they were literally outside of enemy territory. She was just about to throw her phone at him when she saw Gray, who had been running next to him suddenly smack the idiot upside the head.

"You idiot, this is apparently Bora's hideout, are you trying to give our location away!?" Gray whispered harshly next to him as they approached Erza. She left her place next to the wall as she turned to face them, her arms still folded.

"What took you so long?" Erza questioned, glaring at the two.

"Sorry, this idiot couldn't remember where this place was." Loke replied, motioning to Gray who merely glared towards him and continued to face Erza once more.

"Whatever, I think this might just be his Hideout, it may look abandoned but while waiting for you guys, I've heard voices and activity occurring on the inside."Erza spoke up, dismissing their tardiness.

"Anyway, just who was the contact who told you about this place?" Gray would ask, curious as to who was able to find it so easily when Fairy Tail as a whole had been trying for days.

"That's not important right now, here, take these." Erza avoided the question easily as she knelt down in order to pick up the suitcase that rested on the ground, opening the case she would remove two handguns, giving one to each of them and keeping one for herself.

Members of Official Guilds were authorised by the council to use firearms and the like all in order to uphold Balance. While it was help full, it was not uncommon for corrupt people to take advantage of this for their own nefarious plans. Fairy Tail was strict on their use of fire-arms and as such only the members in higher positions such as Erza had the right to deem when it was suitable or not to use one.

"We're going in, stay close and be quiet. Shoot only when I tell you to or you deem it absolutely necessary." Erza dead panned, her face soon taking up a serious expression as she spoke to them. Motioning for Loke to give her a boost, he would kneel down and offer his hand out as a makeshift foothold as she effortlessly jumped onto it and then the wall itself before helping the others get up.

X

'Bam!'

The door to the room Lucy was being kept in was suddenly kicked open as Bora once more walked into the area, he wore only a shirt, lacking any pants and undergarments which left his lower half completely bare as he himself was drenched in blood. The dismembered head of the young teenage girl he had dragged away prior hung loosely in his hand by a few strands of hair.

"All I ask is for a little obedience, why do you idiots even contemplate escaping in this situation!?" He all but shouted, throwing the head towards the group of girls to their dismay, most crawling away in shock and horror.

Lucy's eyes welled up with tears, she felt on the verge of crying again but tried desperately to remain calm and level headed, she needed to get out of here somehow. Bora turned his gaze in her direction as he faced her, his crazed eyes seemingly bored into her very soul, she felt nauseous.

"You... come with me, I want to at least have some fun before I ship you off!" He proclaimed as he walked over to her, grabbing her by the hair as she struggled in-vain to get away, her screams muffled by the gag as the tears now ran down her cheeks.

"Shut up you bitch!" The man roared, roughly yanking her up onto her feet as he dragged her out of the room and into the hallway, the sudden bright light hurt her eyes after being kept in such a dark place.

As they walked through the hallway, Lucy was barely able to see into the other rooms that were left open. Men on top of defenceless girls greedily had their way with them. The sounds of screams and cries of pain littered the air as panic took over her, she tried her hardest not to collapse onto the ground, her knees suddenly feeling weak.

Unable to think clearly, she was abruptly thrown against a hard brick wall, her arms bruising as she used them to cover her face against the rough surface. Looking down, she was able to make out the remains of the teenage girls dismembered body, a large machete-like weapon placed messily next to it.

"Fuck, aren't you a pretty one." Bora spoke, staring at her face, his eyes lowering to take a better look at her chest. He would proceed to roughly hold onto her shirt and rip it, tearing the fabric easily as he groped her breast with his spare hand. Intense fear overcame her as she soon lost the ability to think rationally, in a panic, she would head-butt the man and attempt to run past him with little success however as he again grabbed onto her hair and painfully threw her back into the wall.

"Ouch, you fucking idiot. What was the point in that!?" He groaned as he rubbed his forehead, quickly back handing Lucy with enough force to daze her. He had proceeded to form a first with his hand in preparation for a beating to teach the girl a lesson.

'Clack'

It lasted but a second but the sound of a bullet ricocheting was heard, it caused Bora to pause in place, he didn't recall giving his men permission to use guns in this place, that could only mean...

"Fuck..." Bora could only glare at Lucy before turning on his heel to go and put on his discarded pants, storming out of the room as he shouted over his shoulder. "You just try to leave and I'll do worse to you then what I did to her." He pointed to the corpse.

Lucy fell down in place as she sobbed.

X

Loke watched as Erza flawlessly put an end to a man in front of her, having snook up behind the unsuspecting guard she would remove a small knife that had been attached to her thigh and run it through his neck, her hand having snaked its away around his mouth to cover any sounds that he would likely make.

The trio had easily made it into the building and were pleasantly surprised to find that it was indeed crawling with what looked like thugs and Bora's lackeys, Erza leading the way as she effortlessly took out the men in her path.

Erza was considered one of the strongest members in the guild both physically and mentally, many dreaded the thought of ever getting on her bad side. She did however, have aggressive tendencies often shown when she would take people out in the most brutal way imaginable, tonight though it seemed she was at least under control.

They continued to make their way through the factory, dust and cobwebs littered the walls and floors as evidence of its prolonged state of remaining unused.

"Alright, we'll split up here." Erza spoke up suddenly as they came to a halt at two connecting hallways.

"Okay, I'll take this one." Loke offered as he raised his hand-gun in preparation for what was to come.

"Fine, Gray and myself will take the other. Will you be okay alone?" She asked with concern in her voice.

"Of course, don't worry about me. Besides its my fault for leaving Lucy alone." Loke replied to her, hanging his head in shame once he was done.

"Lucy? Who is that?" Erza questioned, raising an eyebrow as she looked at him.

"C'mon, we don't have all night. I'll explain on the way." Gray nudged Erza as she nodded in agreement, the pair soon taking off into their respective hallways leaving Loke to tackle his one alone.

It was not long before he heard screams vibrating through the air, women in pain as they were tortured and used. Walking past a door left slightly ajar, he would halt in his movements. Muffled sobs and grunts could be heard coming from the room, his stomach felt tight as he turned his attention to the door and approached it. He knew what to expect and so he wasn't surprised to see an over-sized man on top of a teenaged girl who had been bound and gagged but that didn't stop him from wanting to vomit. Repressing the urge however, he would raise his gun in anger and fire a single shot at the man, the bullet entering and exiting his skull before ricochetting off of a nearby wall.

The man had completely collapsed onto the girl but was quickly pushed off as Loke made his way towards her, releasing her from her bounds and taking the gag out of her mouth. She had blue wavy and wild shoulder length hair and although she seemed baby faced, she looked to be in her mid-to-late teenage years.

"It's okay now, you're safe." Loke comforted her, rubbing her back in circular motions before continuing. "Do you know where the others are?"

It was no doubt that the girl was greatly traumatised but she was able to understand the question, answering with a nod of her head.

"Can you show me? I promise I'll protect you and get you all out. By the way, what's your name?" Loke continued, although her clothes were ripped, they seemed to be mostly in tact and the farthest that guy went with her seemed to be mild groping.

"Y-Yes, I can. I-I'm Levy McGarden." She said as the two stood up.

"Thank you, my name is Loke." He smiled gently at her and soon after she was leading him down the hallway to the location of the rest of the female captives, he prayed that Lucy wasn't in a similar situation.

"This way." She called over her shoulder, it wasn't long before they had reached their desired location. Loke instantly heard the screams and groans of the captives inside the room as Levy turned the handle and opened the door.

"God..." Loke exhaled in shock and disbelief, there were around more then twenty women all crowded together upon the floor, they were each gagged, their arms tied together with rope. Loke scanned them all over, checking to see if Lucy was in the bunch as Levy made her way over to one of the girls, attempting to remove the gags and ropes as she assured them that they were safe and he was here to help.

Not good, there was no sight of Lucy. Loke sighed as he started to make his way over to the girls unsuspecting of the man that lurked behind him.

Loke did not even have time to think as suddenly he was falling forwards, a shooting pain at the side of his head, he saw Levy facing towards him with shock and despair conveyed in her eyes. Falling onto his back, his gun flying across the floor, he could only look up as Bora knelt down above him, pressing his hands against his throat in order to strangle him.

"You bastards, just who do you think you are!?" Bora yelled down at Loke, pressing his hands down harder as Loke struggled for breath.

"I'm going to have to start over now, god knows how much of you scum know about this place!" He continued, a crazed look on his face.

"Fucking di-..." His words were cut short as something rammed into him, knocking his body off of Loke as the other gasped, finally able to breath. Loke turned his head, now able to take a look at his saviour, it was Lucy! She had collapsed onto the ground, unable to balance herself with her hands bound as such.

Bora had managed to regain his composure, delivering a swift kick into Lucy's gut which sent her body flying into the group of girls, Levy running over to aid her.

"Lucy!" Loke roared, standing up and immediately tackling Bora onto the ground, punching him rapidly in a fit of rage. Bora had managed to block most of his strikes and countered with a head-butt that knocked Loke onto his backside, the other unprepared as a kick to his face caused him to spit out some blood.

"Don't you underestimate me you piece of shit." Bora shouted as Loke struggled to stand himself back up, his attempt in-vain as Bora delivered a punch into his gut which dropped him onto one knee.

"I've been locked up for years but Grimoire Heart freed me, I'm not going back." He spoke through gritted teeth, Loke instantly recognized the name, it brought back the painful memories of what happened to Natsu and the suffering Gray and Ezra went through as a result.

Removing a knife from his trouser pocket Bora would run his thumb over the sharp blade in a dark taunt, he approached Loke once more as he raised the object, ready to off him right then and there.

"This is going to hurt." He spoke but suddenly felt a sharp pressure run through his stomach. A gun had went off, the bullet of which had hit Bora in the back, the bang echoed throughout the small room. Both Bora and Loke turned to face the shooter, Lucy, the ropes had been removed and the gag in her mouth was no longer there. Tears streamed down her face as she glared at the man that had hurt her so.

"W-What... you.. litt-..." He was unable to continue as she shot him again and then again, emptying the weapon of all its ammo.

Loke had mustered up what little strength he could, moving out of range and making his way over to her, wrapping his arms around her torso to calm and steady her.

Click, Click, Click, the gun was now empty but she continued to press the trigger, Bora himself had now collapsed onto the ground. Loke placed his hand onto her arm and lowered it as he pulled her into a hug, she sobbed harshly into his chest.

"Lucy, shhh. You can stop, it's over now. Shhh." Loke soothed her as the gun fell out of her grasp...

Ten Minutes later, Gray and Erza entered the scene. All the captives had now been released, the building now cleared of all the thugs.

"In the late hours of the night a Criminal Syndicate was shut down by the courageous group, Fairy Tail. Run by Bora Prominent, a serial killer who had escaped from Prison a few months prior, the criminals had been running a slave trade and were responsible for the deaths of up to Ten confirmed females and the abduction of over Thirty others. Our heart goes out to victims and the family of all those affected but I can say with certainty that we can sleep better at night knowing these criminals have been brought to Justice. I'm Jenny Realight and this is Magnolia Daily."

To be continued...

A/N: Well that was a fun chapter to write, hopefully I can improve on the action and stuff. I would like to keep future chapters consistent with this length or greater but we'll see.