Lucy had tried to help she really had, but Taurus had been defeated and the monster had set her in its sights. The giant black monster had taken a mere second to grab her with one of its hands. It smiled as it began to squeezes the life out of Lucy.

"AHHHH!"

Lucy cried out

"LUCY!"

Natsu tried to get up off the ground but his leg was hurt and it couldn't take his weight. Another scream from Lucy and Natsu began to curse his own weakness.

"AHH-"

Lucy screamed again only to stop suddenly from her oxygen being cut off. She looked at Natsu with a look that seemed like she was saying goodbye, and in a way she was.

"NO! Don't give up Lucy!"

Natsu tried once more to stand but his leg wouldn't take it and he fell back to the ground. Natsu saw Lucy go limp and the monster dropped her.

"LUCY!" Natsu felt himself being lifted from the floor. "Happy!"

"Sorry I'm late Natsu."

Happy had tears in his eyes, Natsu knew how much Happy like Lucy.

"It's okay Happy. Now lets get this thing."

"Aye."
"Just keep me off my left leg, okay."

"Aye."

Happy flew Natsu over to the monster and the fire mage let loose his dragons roar. He knew it wouldn't work but he needed to distracted the thing so Happy could get Lucy out.

"Happy take Lucy and go."

"But Natsu!"

"No buts Happy! Get Lucy out, the come back and get me." Natsu saw the worried look on his friends' face. "Don't worry, I'll be fine."

Happy nodded and set his friend down against the wall, picked up Lucy, and flew out of the cave.

Natsu was lying to Happy. He didn't know if he could hold out long enough for Happy to come back for him. Natsu breathed heavily, his leg was killing him but he threw a flame ball at the monster.

"Come on ugly. Make my day."

Happy didn't go far just far, he cared about Lucy but Natsu was the only family he had ever had. He gently set Lucy down in a small cavern, hidden away from where animals could find her and went back to the cave. Once he got close enough he heard the scream. Natsu was screaming in pain.

The monster was smarter then Natsu had thought. It knew that Natsu was hurt and it knew where he was hurt. This monster was sadistic, it wanted the mage to feel as much pain as possible before killing him. So he stepped on Natsu hurt leg.

Natsu felt his leg break and involuntary cried out. He looked up into the grinning face of the monster and scowled.

"So you want to cause me pain, your going to have to better then that."

And the monster smiled.

Natsu had take some serious damage before and he could handle a lot of pain, and this monster wasn't going to kill him, not if he could help it. Natsu's thoughts were cut short by the monster kicking him to the mouth of the cave, he rolled in to a ball and coughed blood.

"Damn! That's not good."

Natsu knew his time to get out was slowly running out when he felt himself being pulled in to the sky.

"Happy?"

"You said you would be fine! Why did you lie to me!"

Natsu felt a tear hit the top of his head.

"Sorry Happy I needed you to get Lucy out first. You wouldn't have gone other wise."

Natsu coughed again, it was getting harder to breath.

"Natsu are you okay?"

"Yeah. You know I heal quicker then most people, just give me a day or two and I'll be fine."

Happy nodded.

"Hey Happy where did you leave Lucy."

"In a small cavern, we are almost there."

They got to the cavern and Happy laid Natsu down next to Lucy.

"Happy can you go get our bags from the camp, I have some bandages. Oh and some straight sticks so I can brace my leg."

"Aye, sir."

Happy said sadly.

After Happy left Natsu checked Lucy's breathing, it was labored but from his examination there didn't seem to be any internal bleeding, maybe a broken bone but it didn't look like it pierced the lung. After Natsu was certain that Lucy was not in any immediate danger he turned his attention to his own leg. It hurt less then it should, the break had broken skin and blood was flowing freely from the wound.

"I'm going to have to set this before closing up that."

Natsu mused he twisted his head around to see from another angle.

"Natsu?"

"Lucy! Thank god you are up."

Natsu turned to look at Lucy a huge grin spreading across his face. For reasons beyond him Lucy made Natsu feel like he could do anything, beat any monster. Just the look on her face at this moment made Natsu think he was ready for a second round with the monster.

"Natsu your leg!"

The worry in her voice brought Natsu crashing back into reality.

"Oh yeah just a break, don't worry about it."

Natsu smiled again trying to work up the nerve to ask to check Lucy's back for injury.

"Did that happen while I was knocked out?"

"What? No, this happened when I was thrown against the wall." Lie "Don't worry it's not your fault. Besides Happy should be here soon with everything I need to set it and then I can make a crutch and we can go back to the guild."

"Back to the guild? What about the job?"

"Lucy in our condition we could never finish this with out dieing."

Another smile. Lucy tried to protest something about her rent but Natsu stopped her.

"Lucy no, we could have died we have to go back to the guild and tell the master to up the level of the job."

"Natsu-"

"Lucy you nearly died!"

The force and emotion in Natsu voice made Lucy see the real reason that he wanted to go back to the guild. The dream he had still shook him and seeing Lucy nearly killed forced him to realize his own weakness. Lucy stared at Natsu for half a second before the pain in his side and back became more pressing.

"Ow."

Lucy lifted up her shirt a bit to see the bruise and gasped at the brilliant shade of purple that her midsection was taking on.