Chapter 14

Erza and Grey had followed the hallway until it opened up into a large room with high ceilings. It appeared that almost every member of the Enigmas of Darkness clan was inside. They were all sitting on the floor and bowing in worship of a giant golden Dragon statue which sat up on a small stage. There was a woman on the stage with it, holding a book and giving a speech to her audience.

Grey was about to charge towards the audience when Erza grabbed his arm. "Wait just a moment, they don't know we're here yet, and we could learn something about our adversaries." He nodded in agreement.

The two mages listened to the woman giving the speech. "Our founder, the great wizard Draco Derkaz, wrote all his secrets in this book. We have waited a long time, to be able to steal back his orb which he created for us, and therefore rightfully ours. Now that we have done so, we even have the blood of a dragon slayer to finish the ritual with! Any moment now, our leader Renetta will appear and begin the ritual of creating a dragon egg. Soon we will finally have our dragon and the cleansing era will commence!"

An uproar of cheering and applause filled the room. Erza and Grey gave each other a nervous look, before leaping into action. They used the opportunity of everyone being loud and distracted to start their fight. There were at least fifty people verses their two, so they needed the element of surprise.

_

Meanwhile, Lucy and Happy had reached the end of the hallway. There were four doors so they had begun checking each of them for Natsu. The first three were closets and the last door was the only one locked, so she knew he must be in there. To save her magic energy, she pulled out two bobby pins from her hair and attempted to unlock the door. It only took her a minute to successfully unlock it, although it felt like it took an eternity.

Happy flew in ahead of Lucy and whispered that the coast was clear. He quickly saw Natsu lying on the ground with blood on his chest and his hands bound with chains.

"Natsu!!" He yelled in fright and flew down by his side. Lucy was right behind him. She lifted his upper body off the floor and into her lap. She lightly patted his face so that he would come to consciousness, which he slowly did.

"Natsu what happened to you?" Lucy's voice was shaky and there were tears in her eyes. Natsu looked from Lucy to Happy before responding.

"It's okay, I was just fine until recently. Looks like I got cut somehow." he couldn't remember much at all and he definitely didn't remember getting cut.

Lucy summoned Virgo and told her to get some medical gauze, tape and ointment for Natsu's deep cut. Lucy quickly patched him up while Happy looked around the room for the key to Natsu's chains.

"I don't see it anywhere guys! The bad guys must have it somewhere." Happy was visibly upset.

"Don't worry, I'll focus on getting him out of these chains. You go keep a lookout for us outside the door, warn us of anyone is coming."

Happy flew out of the room to keep watch in the hallway, while Lucy pulled out her bobby pins again and started working on the lock.

"Natsu, do you remember anything about being here? " It was unsettling to her that his memory seemed to have been tampered with.

"Not much, I remember waking up here and asking why they took me. There was a young woman who said she was in charge and that I was their guest. She mentioned that she was sorry for taking me, but that she wanted me to meet everyone and how they were often misunderstood. That's all I can remember. "

Lucy frowned, there was definitely something else going on.

Just then, a cloud of purple smoke filled the corner of the room. It dissipated and out emerged Renetta holding a cage with Happy inside. "Natsu! Lucy! I'm sorry! She just magically appeared out of nowhere!" There were tears of fustration and terror in his little eyes.

Renetta snapped her fingers and green smoke appeared, putting Happy to sleep. "Looks like your mate showed up after all, and here I was thinking that we could of had more time to ourselves." She glared at Lucy before pouting at Natsu in a playfully sexy way. "No matter, this might actually make things a bit more fun!"

She cackled maniacally, before snapping her fingers. Green smoke filled the room making both Lucy and Natsu cough and impossible for them to see anything. Lucy was sent flying into the back wall by a viscious kick from Renetta. Natsu's chains had magically duplicated and bound his feet, pinning him to the opposite wall of Lucy.

Renetta's magic smoke cleared quickly and Lucy could see her standing beside Natsu. She snapped her fingers again, this time releasing purple smoke making Lucy immobile.

Renetta strutted over to Lucy and tied a cloth around her mouth so that she couldn't speak. She bent down to look Lucy in the eye, "There, that's more like it. Now it's time for you to regret ever getting involved in things that don't concern you." She kept eye contact with Lucy, her icy cold stare penetrating Lucy's soul, the fear of what was impending was settling into her thoughts.

She locked eyes with Natsu, giving him a lusty gaze as she approached him slowly. Renetta snapped her fingers once again, releasing a cloud of purple smoke and putting Natsu in a trance of submission. She began to run her hands along his body; starting with his arms, then his chest followed by his abs, while he just stood motionless, expressionless and zombielike.

She stopped there to see the expression on Lucy's face. Lucy's face was contorted in rage at Renetta, and horror as Natsu was unable to react. She had no idea how far this crazed woman was going to take things, or how to escape her magical power.

Seeing Lucy's expression, Renetta cackled again. "Oh don't look so upset dear, we're only getting started." Smirking, she turned back around to face Natsu. She grabbed onto the back of his head with one hand and brought his face to meet hers for a deep, passionate kiss.

Lucy tried to scream out her rage to no avail. Renetta released more of her purple magic smoke, whispering while she stared into his eyes, "You will react to me the same way you would react to your mate."

She turned around, biting her lower lip seductively and began to grind her rear onto his lap. He growled deep in his throat showing that he truely enjoyed the sensation. Renetta stopped to release his bound hands from the wall and forcing them onto her breasts. Natsu groaned in pleasure and closed his eyes, to him it was as if Lucy was doing these things to him.

Cackling, Renetta roughly forced his hands back to the wall, bounding them again, and leaned onto his body to kiss him again. Turning to look at Lucy, she wiped her mouth with the back of her hand.

Lucy had tears in her eyes. She knew that Natsu wasn't himself and that he thought it was her, but it didn't erase the pain she felt from seeing Natsu with another woman firsthand. She couldn't remember being this furious at somebody before, as she currently was at Renetta. It was like her soul was on fire, she felt like Natsu's rage had found itself into her, due to him being under her spell.

"This is getting boring, lets take it up a notch or two." Renetta pulled out the same dagger that she had cut Natsu with earlier, from under her cloak. She smiled wickedly at Lucy before approaching Natsu.

Slowly, she brought the tip of the dagger up to his left bicep. She began to slice his flesh slow and deep enough to hurt without bleeding too much.

Natsu's eyes reflected betrayal as he still though she was Lucy. "Aaagghh! Lucy what are you doing?!" He started to squirm against his restraints.

Renetta stopped, licked the blood off of the dagger with wild eyes while looking at Lucy. Then cackling again, she placed the dagger above the middle of his right thigh. She watched Lucy the entire time as she slowly inched the dagger into his skin, and then down his leg stopping a bit above the knee.

"Aaaaaggghhhh! Please stop! Why are you doing this to me Lucy?! What have I done?!" Natsu couldn't understand why his mate was hurting him like this.

Lucy looked away, she couldn't stand to watch what was happening. Hearing her mate scream her name and question why she was hurting him, was already too much for her to bear.

"Don't you dare look away! It is you and your friend's fault that this is happening! If you hadn't followed us back to our hideout to rescue him, than I wouldn't have been forced to do any of this! I would have eventually released him after wiping his memory of being here." Renetta's face morphed from anger to something quite strange... could it be regret?

Just then something round and glowing pale blue, flew out from under her cape. It was a communication lacrima. A woman wearing an identical cloak with the hood up appeared on it. "Master Renetta, you are needed in the worship room. We are under attack by two wizards."

Renetta sighed, "I'm on my way." She stalked toward the door but stopped before opening it. She looked at Lucy, "I'll be back to deal with you." She disappeared through the door, slamming it on her way out.