Disclaimer: Fairy Tail and all associated characters, locations, ect. are owned by Hiro Mashima.

Warning: The first scene with Focus on Erza contains torture. It's not too intense, but still enough to justify a warning I think. If you hate that kind of stuff, better leave this part out and skip to the first dividing line and the following Focus on Lucy.

Chapter 10 - Chains

Focus on Erza

"Another explosion? ...There's no helping it. I'll just have to check it myself. Those incompetent fools obviously can't do anything right without someone looking over their shoulders. Yakdorgia! Come here!" At her command a slimy-looking creature with many tentacles slithered into the cell.

"What isssss your bidding Missstressss Kyouka?" it hissed.

"Close her wounds and then guard her. I don't want my new toy to bleed out before it loses all its entertainment value. But don't do anything other than treating her wounds and standing guard! I intend to have much more fun with her soon and I don't want her damaged too badly before we got the information from her... or my entertainment spoiled."

Erza couldn't tell how long she had been under Kyouka's torture. The pain was so intense that it completely defied her perception of time. It might have been minutes, hours or days, she really couldn't tell. She was just glad that it had finally stopped, even if it was just a short respite. She had been tortured in the past by the Zeref-Cultists back in the Tower of Heaven, but compared to this Demon they barely passed as amateurs. Even when they ripped out her eye, they couldn't get anywhere near the kind of pain that Kyouka could dish out with a simple lash of her elongated finger. With the Demon's ability to enhance her senses, even a tiny scratch felt like a cut down to the bone... but Kyouka hadn't been so merciful to just make small scratches since that very first 'demonstration' of her ability. Every time Erza managed to adapt to a level of pain enough to keep silent, the Demon just increased her sense of pain and had her screaming and moaning again in no time. It wasn't just the pain that was getting to Erza... it was the complete helplessness and humiliation that began to erode her will to resist.

As much as she wanted to believe in her own resilience, Erza knew that she wouldn't be able to hold out against this anguish for long. She was incredibly glad that she really didn't know Jellal's location and thus couldn't possibly give it away, but she was afraid, so terribly afraid what information about the guild she might reveal once she reached her breaking point.

As the pain slowly faded, Erza became aware of her surroundings once again. Something was slithering around in a dark corner... but not a corner of the floor. As her eyes adjusted further she could make out the disgusting tentacle-Demon Kyouka had called in, hanging from the ceiling.

After another minute or so, it slithered closer and one of its tentacles reached toward her. Erza tried to back away from the disgusting appendage, but tightly chained as she was, she couldn't. The creature laid the tentacle almost gently on one of the many long, jagged, bleeding cuts on her skin. A moment later Erza could feel a terrible burning in the wound and hear a sizzling sound, as the Demon emitted some kind of acid to burn the wound closed. While this was still going on, three other tentacles settled down on other wounds to give them the same treatment.

Despite her best efforts to keep it in, it wasn't long before Erza was again shrieking her lungs out in pain. One wound after the other was closed in this fashion, but before the Demon got to even half of them, Erza blacked out and felt nothing anymore.

Focus on Lucy

"You are right... it would explain everything. To take the Magic Council out like that, they must have had detailed information about the layout, the defensive spells and the guard positions. And they knew all the locations the former councillors moved to. Only a chairman should have access to all that information and since the Demons killed Gran Doma in their attack it's clear he wasn't in league with them. That leaves only the former Chairman. Nobody else could have had the necessary contacts and influence to get all the information together." Master Makarov mused out loud.

"It would also explain how we could lose contact with Erza and Mirajane like that. Both of them being taken out in a straight up fight, before they could call for help, is almost unthinkable, but if they never saw it coming... Crawford could have laid out any number of traps in case someone started to suspect him." he continued.

"He wouldn't even need anything that elaborate. Just inviting them to tea or a small snack and putting something into it would suffice." Lucy pointed out.

"I'm afraid so. But what I don't understand is why he'd risk blowing his cover just to get Erza an~". Suddenly the Communications Lacrima started to beep. Wendy must have arrived at the Ex-Chairman's house.

Master Makarov activated the crystal and as Lucy suspected, it was Wendy who appeared on it. "Master we've arrived, but... there's nothing left." The picture veered away from the girl's face and showed a scene of devastation. Whatever building once stood on the lush hill was now reduced to a pile of charred rubble. The Sky Dragon Slayer pointed her Lacrima back at her own face and continued her report in a shaky voice. "As you can see, something blew up the house. There's also an odd smell blanketing the entire area... it's... it's overpowering everything else... I can't pick up any trace of Erza's, Mirajane's or Natsu's scents..." the young girl said despondently, tears tickling down her cheeks.

Lucy couldn't keep quiet anymore: "Natsu! Was he caught in that explosion? He... he isn't buried under all that rubble is he?"

"No... I already checked... sorry Master, I know you told us to report in right away, but when I saw all this, I panicked and thought the same as Lucy..."

"It's alright Wendy. I never expected something like this..." Master replied. "This doesn't look like battle damage... If they blew the place up intentionally, it's obvious that they won't return to it. There's nothing more you can do over there, so please return to the guild. I'm sorry I have to cut this short, but there are some important calls I need to make. I'll see you when you come back."

Before Wendy could even reply, he had already cut the communication and worked on establishing a new one. Without looking in her direction he addressed Lucy: "I'm sorry, but could you leave my office for the time being. Those calls I have to make are of a sensitive nature and I'm afraid I can't allow anyone to listen in on them. I trust you without any restraint and if it was up to me, you could stay, but the people I'm going to call would be... upset. Politics!" he spat out with disgust.

"I understand" Lucy replied and got up to leave. Just before she closed the office door, Master looked up at her and spoke softly. His eyes were filled with compassion and understanding. "I'll lend you an ear as soon as I can, so please don't do anything rash until we had the chance to talk." Lucy felt as if she should know what the Master was talking about, but her mind was so muddled she just couldn't make the connection, so she just nodded, closed the door and set of toward the main hall again.

She wasn't sure what to think or how to feel. Laxus and the Raijinshuu almost being killed, Lisanna and Elfman disappearing, her own temporary death at Jackal's hand, Natsu's odd, overprotective behaviour... her own budding feelings for the Dragon Slayer, Erza and Mira being abducted and Natsu going missing and now someone as important as the former Chairman being in league with the Demons. It was all too much. It felt as if the entire world was turning upside-down, inside-out and back again every few days.

When she arrived downstairs she just slumped into a chair and stared ahead, without seeing or noticing anything. It was as if her mind was wrapped in invisible chains.

Tears began to flow from her eyes. Please be safe Natsu. Please return to me soon and make this pain and uncertainty go away.

Focus on Natsu

Natsu was cold. Colder than he ever had been for as long as he could remember. That Silver guy waved his hand and I just blacked out... What the hell did he do?

For some reason Natsu was unable to move anything other than his head and arms so he looked down to see what was wrong. To his shock he was encased in ice from his toes right up to his chest. Only his head, shoulders and arms were free.

He felt someone roughly grab his hands and bend them behind his back. Before his still sluggish mind could react, something hard and cold was clapped onto his wrists.

"Okay, he's secured. You can unfreeze him completely now Silver." a female voice said.

"As you wish Kyouka" Silver replied. Natsu couldn't see him, but his voice and smell were unmistakable. A moment later Natsu could feel the icy embrace around his lower body vanish. With the restraining ice gone, his knees buckled and he smacked face-first into the ground. He had tried to catch his fall with his hands, but noticed too late that they had been bound or chained together behind his back.

The Fire Dragon Slayer rolled over, breathed in deep and tried to shoot a Fire Dragon's Roar at Silver, but nothing happened. He tried again, but with the same lack of result. So he abandoned the attempt in favour of trying to melt whatever it was that bound his hands, but just like before, no response.

Whatever they clapped on his wrists must be like the gooey stuff with which he was bound in Edolas. He couldn't use magic.

At a nod of the she-Demon, two figures stepped forward and hoisted the Dragon Slayer up to his feet again and held him in place.

"Took you long enough to notice it, little Fairy. You certainly aren't the brightest, are you?" the female mocked him. Natsu struggled, but couldn't break free from the bindings or the strong arms that held him in place. "Those shackles are made with sealing stone. Even a stupid animal like you should know by now that there's no way for you to get out of them, so just be a good, little pet and give it up." Her body seemed Human, but with the legs of a bird and dog ears. Her hands were massive compared to the rest of her body and ended in wicked looking, bladed claws.

The two figures who restrained him were wearing masks, so Natsu couldn't tell anything about them, though the submissive way in which they moved and the way they seemed to look at the female Demon before everything they did made it clear that they were her servants.

She also gave an order to Silver. Even though that guy was scaring that egg-Demon so much and could order it around, he still followed this Kyouka's orders without complaint or hesitation. Does that mean she's their leader?

"Where are Erza and Mira! What have you done to them you ugly Harpy!?" Natsu screamed at her.

Suddenly her finger grew in length and she slashed it across his face. It felt like he had been hit by a whip, but a whip with blades attached to it. He could feel blood tickling down from the wound below his right eye.

"You will address me with the proper respect or keep your mouth shut! Unfortunately I don't have the time to teach you proper discipline just now, but I'll get to you soon enough." She turned to the two masked figures. "Get him down into the dungeon and lock him in with the little wench Sayla brought with her. That way we won't have to use any more guards than are already down there." the harpy look-a-like said.

"Wait a moment you two." Silver told the two masked flunkies, before turning to Kyouka. "I don't understand why you assigned any guards to watch her cell in the first place. Both she and this one are just kids. What little magic they have is already sealed and their arms are chained behind their backs. There's no way they could ever escape a cell, much less get past the guards at the dungeon exit. And even if they did where would they go? Jump down? From this height they'd never survive."

After pondering his arguments for a moment Kyouka spoke again: "You do have a point... with the way the Humans were able to take out Tempesta and Jackal and even a whole squad of our regular troopers... they could use more training. It'd certainly be a better use of their time than standing around in the dungeon all day long, twiddling their thumbs."

She stepped closer to Natsu and ran a finger along Natsu's wound, coating it in his blood and then licked it off her finger with obvious delight. "Here's a little taste of what awaits you, once I have some time to play with you." At her words a tingling sensation ran through his entire body and the little wound began to sting terribly. A moment later her sharp finger stabbed into his shoulder and the world dissolved into nothing but pain. His legs buckled and the two servants were the only thing that kept him upright.

Natsu couldn't understand it. Her finger had barely penetrated his skin and hadn't even drawn any blood and yet the pain had been so overwhelming... he didn't think it could have hurt any more even if his entire arm had been cut off.

After smiling at him for a few moments more, Kyouka turned back to the underlings. "Take him to the cell and tell the guards to go to the training grounds... Give this one the usual treatment before locking him up. Now go!"

At her command the two guards grabbed Natsu and roughly dragged him away. Just before he was out of sight he could see a smirking Silver wink at him. The Dragon Slayer tried to resist them with all he got, but those two guys were a lot stronger than they appeared. Without his magic and with his hands bound, he just couldn't overpower them, especially not with the way his head was still spinning from whatever it was that Kyouka did to him.

After going through some corridors and down a long flight of stairs the two guards shoved him inside a room at the side. While one guard held him down, the other removed his scarf, bunched it together and shoved it into a shelf.

"Hey! What are you doing! Give that ba~" before he could finish his demand, his head was smacked onto the hard stone floor with enough force to make him hover at the edge of unconsciousness for a time. While he was trying hard not to black out, he could feel his vest and shirt being ripped off, followed shortly by his trousers and even his pants, leaving him completely naked.

The next thing he knew, his bare behind was deposited roughly on a stone floor and metal bars snapped into his face. "Hey! Give back my clothes! No, never mind those, GIVE ME BACK MY SCARF!" The guards didn't react in any way to his screaming and just left. If he hadn't seen Kyouka order them around, he would have believed them deaf.

"Natsu?" a familiar female voice asked behind him. Could it be? Slowly he turned around and saw that he had heard right. In the far corner of the cell, sat a naked Lisanna, staring at him in disbelieve.

Wasn't she off on some mission with Elfman? Why is she here and what happened to her brother. If Mira learns of this, she will be soooo mad. She'll smash the entire... wait naked? NAKED?!

"Lisanna... your clothes..." Natsu stammered.

At first he only got a confused look from his childhood friend, as if she didn't know what he was talking about. Slowly she turned her eyes down to look at herself. For a moment she just sat there completely frozen. And then she started screaming. "KYAAAAAAA!"

After words: As many of you probably have noticed, despite all the cuts and slashes that Erza received, her wounds were already closed up when she was seen again in chapter 371, leaving only some bruises. It's something that was already annoying me greatly after Naval Battle. Directly in the chapter, there were several trails of blood running down from Lucy's wounds and on the first page of the next chapter, she's suddenly only dripping with water and her open wounds were reduced to bruises or disappeared altogether... and Mashima did it again (or more likely the editor/publisher forced him to do it again) :-( . At least between chapter 371 and the last torture scene in 368 there was enough time to "justify in" a theory of how the Demons sealed Erza's wounds so Kyouka could keep torturing her for longer and with less risk of accidentally killing her.
As for the timing, the screams from Erza's wounds being closed were exactly the screams that Natsu heard right before punching Franmalth in the previous chapter.

27.08.2017: Grammar and spelling.