The dragon slayers had been walking for over an hour. Not wanting to risk using too much of Laxus's magic, they were forced to take it as slow as they were willing, given their limited amount of time.
"Wait, guys..." Wendy says as she sniffs the air. "The trail...it stops here but there's such a large trace of magic that they could be right in front of us. It's way too familiar, though..."
"No I feel it too...there's something about that smell, It's muted by all the other Magic, though, "Natsu says as he looks around, knocking on trees to see if there were any sort of hidden doors.
"Yo Flame Brain, get yer ass over here" Gajeel growls as he looks down at the ground. He points to a plethora letters tracing the roots of trees. "They're runes, Shrimps got them all around the house to hide my piles of iron...these look exactly the same. This has to be her magic..I couldn't even smell if since it covered by this asshole..but no one writes runes like Levy," he growls angrily, his magic forming a thin purple cloud around him as his body flashes from skin to iron to reaches over and puts a hand on his shoulder quickly causing him to return to flesh.
"Levy taught you to read them, right? Isn't there always some sort of clue or key to be able to break it?" She asks quietly. "Some sort of condition?"
"There usually is, kid...just gimmie a sec," he says as he kneels on the ground, following the words with his fingers before smirking.
"What a smart ass bookworm..she meant a literal key.." he mumbles before turning his hand into an iron skeleton key. "All it says it that you need to know the rule of the key, Levy's usually pretty literal," he says with a smirk. Hoping for the best, he shoves his hand into the ground. Slowly the runes begin to dissipate revealing a small wooden cottage, the windows caked in dust and spider webs and the wood on the porch beginning to splinter dangerously. They all look at each other before smirking. They were ready to get their mates back. Laxus steps forward, looking back at the to signal them to step away. As soon as he did so he zapped the door, easily breaking off the padlocks that riddled the door.
"What the fuck was that?" Alexander growls, his head snapping towards Levy.
She was the one who he forced to make the runes in the first place, he should have expected the smart one to make it easy for them. He wasn't ready for them, they had to be weaker. He had to have more leverage over them fro his plan to work perfectly. He rushes over to the machines turning them all up to 90%.
Screams fill the air as their magic drops to 15%. Their backs arched against the shackles that held them to the wall, tears stream down their faces as they struggled. Alexander stared at them for a second before looking at the cellar door. It wasn't enough..he wanted them begging for mercy.
Their heads snap to look at each other, the screams of their loved ones filling their sensitive ears a soon as they step into the house.
"What the fuck is he doing to them?" Natsu growls, his hair falling to cover and shadow his eyes as his hands ball themselves into fists, smoke starting to emanate from his body, burn patterns appearing under his feet.
"Whatever it is, it'll be the last thing he does," Laxus hisses as lightning crackles around him. He takes a quick step away from Gajeel who was currently switching back and forth from iron, shadow, and skin, his pupil and iris turning a blinding white. Wendy looks back at them before running forward towards a set of stairs leading to the cellar.
"Wendy wait!" Laxus yells, knowing that anyone who could take out Mirajane, Lucy, Levy, and Romeo had to be at least slightly dangerous. Wendy runs down a set of stairs, following Romeo's sent as quickly as she can. 'I'm coming for you Romeo..I promise'.
Wendy runs down a set of stairs, following Romeo's sent as quickly as she can. 'I'm coming for you Romeo..I promise'.
They all quickly arrive downstairs breaking the locks that held the door closed with ease before they were forced to put their hands over their mouths, the smell of blood quickly invading their senses. They look around before their eyes lock on the back of the room, their mates strung up to the walls, groaning in pain as their magic swirls in tubes leading to the machines.
"Levy!"
"Mira!"
"Lucy!"
"Romeo!" They all yell unanimously, rushing towards their loved ones, they quickly turned off the machines, taking out the IV's and remove the shackles from their bruised wrists. Their bodies fall limply into the dragon slayers arms. Their faces soften as they hold them in their arms, heartbeats barely audible to even the oldest and most experienced slayer. Wendy holds her hand over Romeo's head as she watches his face regain color slowly, she follows suit with the others to ease their pain. She had to start to heal them, they had no chance of making it otherwise. Wendy slowly began healing Romeo.
"..trap.," he mumbles in his pained sleep, his eyebrows creasing as Wendy pulls her hand away, shocked at his ability to be able to say anything at all it takes her a minute to comprehend that he just said. Her eyes widen a second later.
"The door!" She yells before the door slams and locks behind them.
"Well, I see that you've found my little puppets." Alexander's voice echoes from all around the room.
"Where the fuck are ya, ya fuckin' coward" Gajeel growls, his body now completely made of iron. Shadows engulfing himself and Levy.
"Now now, can't we talk nicely?" Alexander asks smugly as he steps out of the shadows in the corner of the room. The slayers glare at him, dark auras surrounding them all as their anger fuels them. They growl angrily as they stand up and move towards him.
"Gimmie one reason why I shouldn't turn ya into a chew toy?" Gajeel growls as the shadows Alexander stepped out of began to close in on them.
"Now..the reason you were here for originally was because I want your power, I still do. And if I remember correctly, I did say that I'd let them go if I gained said power." He says with a fake smirk as he realizes that as some point, Gajeels made its way around his neck.
"What makes you think that we're that stupid. You won't let them go" Laxus growls as he unconsciously runs his hand through Mira's long locks.
"True true, but either way. Would you rather me torture them more?" He asks with a smirk before gesturing to the shackles that are still on the wall.
"You've got 5 seconds, either you get up there, or I torture them with telepathy so bad that they'll never be able to look at you again."
The slayers look at one another cautiously, not seeing any other choice, knowing that he could corrupt their minds within seconds.
"Only if I can heal them first," Wendy says as she stares at her friends. "You can have my power as soon as I stabilize them," she says as she looks to the other slayers, all knowing that she'd have no power left after healing all of them.
"..Ugh fine. All so difficult" he says with a roll of his eyes. "Well I mean...your little girlfriends over here were easy, simple sleep spell took out the little minxes long enough fo me to do Whatever. I. Wanted" Alexander says with a dangerous emphasis on his last words.
"I swear to God if you touched a hair on any of their heads," Laxus hisses as he proceeds to lock himself into the shackles with the rest of the boys.
"Yeah yeah, turn me into a chew toy, I get it" Alexander taunts "That wasn't all that hard now was it, though?" Alexander asks with a smirk. kicking Lucy and Levy in the ribs to get them out of his way, drawing a dangerously low growl from the slayers and a gasp from Wendy as she quickly focused on the new wounds that he just inflicted on them. He'd be right to be frightened if he didn't have such good leverage. He walks up to the slayers, sticking the iv's into their arms and making sure that the machines were drawing their magic at dangerously fast speeds.
He kicks Lucy and Levy in the ribs to get them out of his way, drawing a dangerously low growl from the slayers and a gasp from Wendy as she quickly focused on the new wounds that he just inflicted on them. He'd be right to be frightened if he didn't have such good leverage. He walks up to the boys, sticking the IV's into their arms and making sure that the machines were drawing their magic at dangerously fast speeds.
"It should only be a little while now" he purrs.
Lucy stirs quietly, her head spinning as her vision slowly clears, black dots still peppering her sight.
"Wendy..." she mumbles quietly, moving to sit up before falling back, her groan covered by Wendy's hand.
"You're the only one awake so far," Wendy says quietly.
Lucy sits up and looks around before freezing as her eye land on Alexander, too preoccupied with the boys to pay attention to them. "We have to do something...the boys..,"
"We have to do something...the boys..," she mumbles as she pushes up onto her knees.
Wendy nods as she stares at the boys their faces becoming paler by the minute as they occasionally whimper in pain.
"I don't know if you have enough magic to summon enough spirits for a fight..." Wendy says nervously.
"It's okay.I only need enough for one spell.
Survey the Heavens, Open the Heavens...
All the stars, far and wide...
Show me thy appearance...
With such shine.
Oh, Tetrabiblos...
I am the ruler of the stars...
Aspect becomes complete...
Open thy malevolent gate.
Oh, 88 Stars of the heaven...
Shine!
Urano Metria!" Lucy whispers out the words, tripping over them occasionally as she goes. Alexander turns around as the lights flash behind him.
"What the.." he covers his face quickly, staying shielded fo a moment before slowly pulling his arm away and looking down at the blonde who was now struggling to breathe.
"She didn't have enough magic..." Natsu mumbles as Lucy slides back into the awaiting arms of Wendy.
Alexander claps slowly in front to them. "Wow!" he says with a snicker. "it's just like the grand magic games. you're so fucking weak." He kicks Lucy in the stomach causing her to double over and causing Wendy to fly back to the other wall.
"Don't touch them!" Natsu yells, fire lighting in his now tired blue eyes. "oh? and what are you gonna do about it?" Alexander says with a smirk as he reaches his arm back to swing at Mira.
"oh? and what are you gonna do about it?" Alexander says with a smirk as he reaches fro the knife and starts to thrust it towards Lucy.
"Solid Script- Guard!" Levy says quietly, holding up both her hands to manage to keep up the shield. Within second the shield fails and Levy's hands fall to her sides.
"I don't care how much magic I have to use..hell I don't care if its the last of my magic, You Will Not Touch My Family" she pants and she slowly staggers to her feet. Alexander looks at levy before shrugging and staring her down, a scream echoes around the room as she falls to her knees.
"What the fuck did you do?!" Gajeel screams as he pulls on the shackles. the screws bolting them into the wall pulling out as he pulls against them.
"oh, nothing, nothing, just making her relive the two worst days of her life. did you know that you're one of them?" he taunts as he takes a step closer to Gajeel, their noses almost touching. Gajeels arm shoots out and grabs alexanders throat causing him to yelp. the product of his brute strength pulling the bolts out of the wall and freeing his right hand from the wall.
"You really fucked up buddy" he growls as he turns his fist into iron and punches him in the face causing him to fly across the room. Gajeel quickly rips off the rest of his restraints and throws the iron into hiss mouth, roughly pulling out his IV's before proceeding to do the same with everybody else.
"Let's give this bastard what he deserves eh?" Laxus asks with a smirk as he walks towards Alexander who was staring intently at Mira, Lucy, Romeo, and the now balled up Levy.
"OI, don't even think about it" Laxus growls, all too late as he hears their screams fill the room.
"Wow.. that blue headed one and the white headed one really are fucked up, Blondies getting there but the boys still pretty innocent," he says with a smirk as Laxus lunges towards him and punches him in the face. Red flashes in his eyes as he uses Lightning Dragons Iron Fist. He throws punches at Alexander, not ceasing until Natsu and Gajeel grab his arms.
"Get the fuck off of me," he growls as lightning fills the air, making Gajeel's hair stand on end.
"Hey, we just want some too," they growl, for once having something in common as Gajeel shoots iron shrapnel at Alexander causing his to howl out.
"Todays the day that you learn to never mess with a dragon slayers mate," Natsu growls as he begins to beat the life out of Alexander, their respective elements making their hits even more violent.