Author's note: New chapter time! Once again, thank you all for the lovely reviews you left on the last one. They really make me happy to read them ^-^ This week's chapter is a bit longer than usual, mostly because I didn't know when to end it.
Also, on a side note, who else is really enjoying the 'Natsu's heart and memories' parts of the manga at the moment? Because I certainly am. I love that, and the moments with Lucy and Happy, so much. Speaking of Happy, someone make him happy again. My poor blue child doesn't deserve this :|
Jacey: I sort of am? Like, if I see something that fits with the non-canon storyline, then I'll happily use it, like today's part with Anna and the scarf. Funny that you mentioned the dragon slayers though, because while he doesn't necessarily remember Gajeel, he remembers Wendy, at least vaguely, and vice versa. Kind of like in canon when they first meet. On the flip side, though, I'm ignoring Larcade's existence for this because I started writing this before he was introduced, and honestly I just find his character tiring to deal with, not gonna lie. And his magic creeps me out ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
It may have just been his imagination, but as they made their way through Oak Town, Gray found that it wasn't as cheerful as Magnolia was. The streets seemed darker, more oppressive and deadly. That being said, of course, it could also have something to do with the giant structure that was towering over them.
Whilst Phantom Lord's guild hall had the appearance of a castle, the large, imposing structure only served to cast shadows on anything that happened to be beneath it. Gray was sure that that was what Phantom was going for when they were designing it. There was none of the quirk and charm of Fairy Tail's guild hall, just spikes that lined the outside and along the top. Gray clenched his fist as he looked to Makarov, waiting for him to say when.
The master's face was eerily calm, a complete opposite of how he'd been in the South Gate Park, back when they'd discovered Levy, Jet and Droy. He turned to face the rest of them. "Three of our own were hurt today, and what's more, they were hurt in the dark by cowards." He spat the word as though it burned him. "My children are not toys for another guild to break, and that is why," he turned towards the giant wooden door that sat between them and Phantom, fist drawing back and slowly starting to enlarge. Gray readied himself, ice magic forming around his hands, and Makarov swung forward, breaking the door into splinters. "– FAIRY TAIL HAS COME CALLING!"
There were shouts of surprise and shock from inside, and as the dust cleared, Gray saw the Phantom members quickly jump up, grabbing nearby items as makeshift weapons. Immediately, Gray and the rest of Fairy Tail rushed forward, charged with the desire for revenge on their fallen comrades, on their broken home and the pitying looks in their own town. Erza led the charge, sword raised high in the air and a battle cry on her lips.
"Let's get 'em!" cried one of the nearby Phantom members, raising a mace towards Erza. She neatly sidestepped him, swept her sword across his torso and used his falling, unconscious body as a platform to reach the rest of her enemies, conjuring more swords in the process and requipping into another of her armours. Gray watched in fascination for a moment, then got to work on his own opponent, some sort of weak fire magic user. The irony didn't escape him, and with a smirk, Gray finished that round in a matter of seconds.
To the side, Macao shouted, "Purple mist!" and tendrils of purple fire shot out of a magic circle, grabbing nearby opponents and holding them still in mid-air. He turned to Wakaba and said quickly, "Now, Wakaba!"
Wakaba slowly removed his ever-present pipe from his mouth, a smile on his face. "On it. Here comes smoke punch!" The smoke from the pipe suddenly turned into giant, smoky fists. The fists flew to the trapped Phantom members, still dangling in mid-air by the purple flames, and punched them to the other side of the room, where Cana was throwing down her cards and creating lightning all around her. Elfman ran by her, running over about ten people in his wake. Gray could only blink at that.
Gray turned his head slightly and noticed four opponents running towards him, various spells all at the ready. Quickly thinking, he muttered, "Ice floor!" The floor just next to him and extending to the four enemy wizards suddenly turned to smooth ice, shining under the lights of the Phantom guild hall, and his opponents suddenly slipped on it. Gray watched as they went sliding by him, straight into Erza's unmerciful wrath. Their screams followed him even as he turned to face his next opponent – a beefy guy who seemed to have a huge hygiene problem.
Beefy cracked his knuckles and leered down at Gray, showing a missing tooth. "Heh heh. Time to tear off those fairy wings." Gray stared at him, unimpressed, as Beefy raised his hands and shouted, "Iron make: tachi!" Instantly, his iron make magic moulded into a thick blade, one that immediately started racing towards Gray.
Gray threw his hands up. "Ice make: shield!" Without thinking about it, he leapt up onto the block of ice he'd inadvertently created and quickly said, "Ice make: geyser!" A large, jagged shot of ice sprung up from the ground, right where Beefy was standing, and it froze him inside. Gray slowly put his hands down and sighed, then smirked slightly. "Maybe that'll cool you off."
His attention was diverted, once again, by the master. Makarov increased his entire body size, crushing tables and people alike as he forced the guild hall to accommodate the new person. Gray heard at least one person shout, "He's a monster!"
It seemed the master had heard it, as well. "And you dared to lay your hands on this monster's children! Are you foolish enough to believe human laws will protect you from my rage?!"
Gray was really glad gramps was on their side. Judging by the looks that Phantom members were casting each other, it seemed that they'd realised that they'd messed up big time. He could hear them muttering about Makarov's power, about the power of the guild being underestimated. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Erza go flying past him, a sword in each hand. Somewhere off to the side, Laki seemed to be having the time of her life in confusing people with her wood make magic.
Erza sprinted by Gray again, requipping into her Flame Empress Armour as she went. Leaping into the air, she yelled, "Tell me: WHERE CAN I FIND GAJEEL AND THE ELEMENT FOUR?!"
Erza glanced up at an ominous chuckle, coming from above them. The rafters, it seemed.
"Ah, the legend herself," the voice said musingly. Erza caught a glint of metal as the person appeared to shift, and she readied herself to jump up there if she needed to, teeth bared. "It seems that Salamander, Laxus and Mystogan are too scared to play." A ray of light hit the source of the voice, and Gajeel Redfox, the Iron Dragon Slayer of Phantom Lord, was revealed, standing above them like a bird of prey.
Or, Erza's mind supplied, like a dragon, thinking of the times when Natsu had often watched the guild from the highest indoor point.
"Or do they just not care?" Gajeel continued his monologue, apparently uncaring whether or not anyone heard him or not. Either way, Erza had heard enough. With a yell, she launched herself forwards and upwards, requipping into her Black Wing Armour to give herself extra speed as she launched into the air. One of the things she liked the most about her Black Wing Armour was the main enhancement of it: the extra speed it granted her to enable her to almost fly for periods of time if she launched herself at the right angle, and the added offence to her attacks. Granted, she wasn't as fast as she was when she was wearing her Flight Armour, but absolute speed wasn't what she wanted right now.
All she needed was to be able to keep up with a sub-par dragon slayer. Her fights with Natsu had been training her for this.
Erza landed deftly on the rafter beam above Gajeel, and she glared down at him, heart racing from adrenaline and the thrill of the fight. "Black Steel Gajeel," she greeted coolly, adjusting her stance on the beam slightly, adjusting her grip on her sword.
Gajeel grinned up at her savagely, and gave a mocking bow. "Titania Erza," he replied in turn, voice full of contempt and the barest hint of sarcasm at her moniker. Without warning, he launched upwards, shouting, "Iron Dragon Sword!" Erza watched in amazement as his entire arm transformed into a sword, and she quickly dodged and deflected the oncoming blow onto another beam. The resulting blast from the force of the blow was enough to catch a few peoples' attention, Erza noted out of the corner of her eye. She couldn't afford to focus on that, though.
"You have crimes to answer for!" Erza all but yelled, launching her own attack. She managed to land a hit on Gajeel, and she leapt over him, using her Black Wing Armour's enhancement to fly a short distance away from him. Once she landed, she raced towards him again, and they were locked in close combat. Swords clashing, sparks raining around them from the grind of metal on metal.
Erza grit her teeth. It seemed that they were too evenly matched. While Gajeel had brute strength on his side – as well as the tough exterior of a dragon slayer that she recognised from Natsu – Erza had swiftness on hers. With a defiant yell, she quickly placed an armoured foot on Gajeel's chest and used it as a platform to push away from. Kicking away, she leapt up onto the next rafter above him, requipping two axes instead of the one sword. Maybe dual-wielding would garner better results.
Gajeel smirked and leapt after her, landing with a solid thump on the shaking wooden beam. "What's the matter, Titania?" he asked, voice full of mocking concern as he stalked towards her, swinging the sword – his arm - back and forth with reckless abandon. "Are you scared?" He grinned widely, showing off pointed fangs, so similar to Natsu's. "Are you giving up?"
Erza let out a snarl, offended at the mere notion of giving up to these scumbags. "To you?!" she retorted, swinging her axes back at Gajeel so quickly, she was sure that to an onlooker, it looked like a blur of black and purple. She ran at him, snarling at the savagely delighted grin that Gajeel was giving her, at the fight she was giving. "Never!"
Calling upon all of her strength, she darted through all of Gajeel's defences and just shoved. Immediately, they both toppled from the beam, the force of the shove breaking it in the process, and they fell towards the floor. Erza quickly activated the glide ability that came with the Black Wing Armour, and she gently dropped down onto the ground, paying no attention to the stares being pinned on her from both sides of the conflict. She narrowed her eyes at Gajeel, who had landed on his feet, readjusting her stance again.
Gajeel started laughing, a harsh sound if there was ever one. "The fairy's got a sting," he said, still laughing as he moved to face her, sword arm out in front of him. His grin darkened. "That almost hurt."
Erza stared steadily at him, chest heaving and body shaking from the adrenaline of the fight. "Requip," she snarled, and bright light immediately surrounded her. As soon as it appeared, it was gone again, leaving Erza standing in her Morning Star Armour, two blades dangling loosely from her hands. She shifted her stance, and Gajeel grinned as he did the same. For a long moment, they just stared at each other, willing the other to make the first move.
It was Gajeel who broke first. With a roar, he dashed forward, sword swinging at her wildly. In response, Erza dodged it deftly before running towards her opponent, cape and hair flying behind her. With a yell, she brought the two blades together as they made contact with their target, and immediately a jet of energy burst forth from them, creating an explosion worthy of Natsu. She felt more than heard Gajeel be blasted away from her, and in the resulting chaos, she shouted, "Requip!"
Immediately, she was standing in her Flight Armour. Whilst this armour had technically less defences on it, such as the less armour around it, it made up for that fact with the sheer speed it granted her. With another defiant yell, Erza charged forward in the midst of the confusion, speed boosted until her surroundings were nothing but a blur of colours, friends and enemies around her. As she approached Gajeel, she immediately brought her two, one-handed swords down upon him, before darting away again and striking at him from a different angle.
She would have continued with the quick-strike assault, finding it to be the best way to combat the hulking Iron Dragon Slayer, but a sudden commotion from above diverted part of her attention. There was a rumbling coming from – the ceiling? No, Erza quickly corrected herself, the top of the tower. A golden light was flooding through the cracks that were rapidly appearing, and she almost let herself smile. She knew that light – everyone in Fairy Tail knew the source of that light.
Master Makarov.
Even Gajeel had ceased his fighting, staring up as well with a strange expression on his face, almost like he was anticipating something else happening. Erza's stomach clenched as, a moment later, a scream was heard, getting closer to them. A though someone was falling. Erza looked up again in time to see the master falling through the air. With a silent gasp, Erza sprang into action, using her enhanced speed to get herself to where she thought the master would land.
As she caught him, the first thing that Erza noticed was his skin – it looked almost green, a sickly pallor that she had never seen on anyone before, bar Natsu when he was motion sick. The second thing she noticed was how sunken and gaunt his face had become, and she immediately started to burn with hatred. Someone had done this to the master.
Someone had caused the master harm.
"Master!" she said urgently, trying to keep her growing panic down below her newfound hatred for her enemies. When the master didn't respond, she settled for a snarl.
"Is he okay?!" Elfman asked, jogging up beside them with a worried look on his face. Gray appeared beside him, frowning heavily.
"I don't sense any magic power from him," he said slowly, as though he was trying to make sense of the situation.
Erza glanced around at her comrades, seeing the morale physically drop before her eyes as news of the master's defeat spread through the ranks, and bit her lip. With morale so dangerously low, and with the master out of commission, they had little chance of beating an entire guild. Swearing to herself, she shouted, "Everyone, retreat!"
Natsu sighed happily as he made his way down the street, Happy walking beside him. He had to admit, it had felt good to let loose on the Phantom members hiding out in Magnolia. He grinned to himself, hands going behind his head, as he remembered how easy it had been to track them down, and how equally easy it had been to remove them from the town. Honestly, Natsu didn't know why they tried to fight against him, especially that one fire wizard, of all things.
"Did you see their faces?" Natsu laughed, accidentally letting out a burst of flame in his manic enthusiasm. Okay, so perhaps he had gone a bit overboard when he was evicting the squatters – perhaps he hadn't needed to use all of his fire dragon spells – but Happy hadn't tried to stop him. Hell, Happy had joined in on the eviction, wielding his fishbone-sword. And who could really blame Natsu? Those wizards had been part of the group that had destroyed their guild hall, and therefore their pride, and had hurt their friends.
Natsu's face darkened as he thought about Levy, Jet and Droy hanging from the tree, wrists bound in iron. That was unforgivable. Without meaning to, he let out a growl, and Happy immediately jumped back with an apprehensive look on his face.
"Natsu?" he asked carefully, slowly walking closer to him again. Natsu then noticed that they'd stopped walking, and that he had his fists clenched. Taking a deep breath, he forced himself to calm down. He knew that the others had gone down to Oak Town to thrash Phantom. That thought alone made Natsu feel a bit better. "Are you okay?" Happy asked as they resumed walking.
Natsu grinned down at him, hoping that it didn't come out too much like a grimace. "Yep! Totally fine, bud!" Happy didn't look convinced, and the raised eyebrow said it all. "Well, better," Natsu amended, rubbing the back of his hair sheepishly. He opened his mouth to say something else, but suddenly cut himself off, mind wandering towards the new distractions that had suddenly appeared before him.
At approximately the same time, Natsu noticed two things before him. Lying in the middle of the street was a glint of something gold and silver. Natsu immediately felt his stomach twist in apprehension as, walking over to the glittering object, he smelled two scents he was vaguely familiar with. His apprehension was confirmed as he bent down to examine the glittering object, and found a set of keys. Keys that looked very familiar.
"Um, Natsu?" Happy asked, wandering over and looking at the keys as well with a worried look. "I think those are Lucy's keys…" Natsu didn't give a response, and instead sniffed the air. His face twisted into a snarl – those two had definitely been here, and if Lucy's keys were lying on the ground at the epicentre of it, then it could only mean bad things. "She wouldn't just drop them like that," Happy added, putting his paws together anxiously.
Natsu straightened up, hands gripping the keys tightly. "No, she wouldn't," Natsu agreed, eyes narrowed into dark slits. So that was how Phantom was going to play this game, was it? They were going to kidnap one of his comrades off the street, were they? Natsu gripped the keys even tighter, not paying attention to the sting in the palm of his hand and his fingers. Vaguely, he realised that the sting was a sign of the keys cutting into his skin, but he didn't have time to worry about that.
He sniffed the air again, and caught wind of another scent, this time one he'd smelled recently. Snarl firmly in place, he set off down the street towards it, stalking towards it like a predator with a one-track mind. He could hear Happy following him, but he paid him no mind. Following the scent, it led him through town, back the way he'd just come from, and out towards the outskirts. His gaze narrowed in on his target as soon as he saw it: one of the Phantom wizards he'd evicted from Magnolia, still skulking around despite Natsu's very fair warning.
He grinned darkly, skulking silently towards him.
Still not making a single sound, Natsu clapped a hand on the guy's shoulder, taking some malicious glee in the small scream that was emitted. Immediately, the guy looked over his shoulder to look at them, and his expression morphed into one of profound horror as soon as he looked at them.
"Y-you! Salamander!" he stuttered, not even trying to hold back the fear in his voice. Natsu absently noted the black eye the guy had, probably put there by Natsu himself in the last couple of hours – honestly, he couldn't remember. His eyes flitted down to where Happy was hovering, and they widened even more. "And the cat!"
Natsu tilted his head slightly, face darkening. "We need to have a little chat," he said lowly, a small growl slipping through, lighting up the hand still holding the guy's shoulder for good measure. The guy shakily nodded, pale and sweating. Without waiting for an answer, Natsu turned and – adjusting his grip so he was holding the wizard by the scruff of the neck – slowly walked out of town, dragging the wizard behind him.
We're coming for you, Lucy.
Slowly and painfully, Lucy felt herself returning to consciousness. The first thing she registered, as her brain started to whir back to life again, was confusion. Where was she? What had happened before she blacked out? With a giant effort, she slowly opened her eyes, and winced from the brightness that suddenly flooded her retinas. The next thing she registered, as her brain caught up with her, was that she was lying on the floor, her hands tied firmly behind her back. Panicked, Lucy quickly managed to push herself up into a sitting position, and looked around.
"What the…" she trailed off, growing more panicked by the second. "How did I get here?"
From what she could tell, she was in a cell, though she had no memory of having been moved to it. Come to think of it, she had no idea what had happened to her since hearing those ominous words in the street. She looked around again, and sighed dejectedly. Not much chance of escaping by herself, it seemed. There weren't any conveniently sized gaps in the stone walls and the room was windowless.
Lucy scowled at the floor. It appeared that the lacrima vision dramas had lied to her about cells being easy to escape from. And if she couldn't escape from a cell as simple as this, then there was no way that Haynes Song escaped from cells over and over again.
"So you're finally awake," came a voice, light and nonchalant, and Lucy whipped her head around, looking for the source. She couldn't see them properly, though. From what she could tell, they were standing just outside the door to her cell, and the door was behind her back, making it next to impossible for her to look at them. "I was getting worried about you." There was the sound of the door unlocking, the creaking of old metal, and footsteps walking into the room. Lucy's anxiety didn't feel reassured.
"Who're you?!" she demanded, trying to look braver than she really felt at that moment. The figure stepped around, still lingering behind her but enough so that she could see them – him, Lucy corrected herself. He was tall, as far as Lucy could tell, as well as slightly rounded in the middle. For some reason, he had wings on the back of his purple cape, and his pale face was framed by lank, dark hair, topped off by the most absurd hat that Lucy had ever seen.
And Lucy was pretty sure he was wearing purple lipstick.
Oh no. I've been kidnapped by a clown.
"I am Master José Porla," the clown said, pausing for a small second, "of the Phantom Lord Guild."
Lucy jerked her entire body backwards, as though her natural reaction was to escape from anyone from Phantom Lord. "You're with Phantom?" she demanded, shifting her body around so she didn't keep having to look over her shoulder, because that was getting old and painful very quickly. She frowned, and in a moment of absentmindedness, asked herself, "But I thought this was a wizard's guild, not a circus."
"I'd like to apologise for this dingy cell," José continued, as though he hadn't heard her. He gave her a pitying look, which made Lucy want to spit at his feet. "And being tied up must be degrading."
"Not as degrading as being kidnapped," Lucy muttered under her breath, glaring at him.
"But I'm afraid I had no choice, my dear." José paused and regarded her with another pitying look, which made Lucy want to throw acid in his face, or staple her eyes shut just so she wouldn't have to look at him. "That is how you treat a prisoner, after all."
Lucy stared at him for a long minute, her eye twitching. In the end, her anger and pure indignation over being kidnapped by a clown, of all things, won out over her lingering fear, and she snapped out, irritably, "You're one of the jerks who hurt Levy!" Spitefully, she began pulling against the ropes that bound her hands together, gritting her teeth when they didn't give. "My friends are gonna come looking for me, so you'd better let me go!"
José smiled slightly, as though he was dealing with a petulant child, and not a prisoner from another guild. The thought made Lucy even angrier. "Depending on your willingness to co-operate," he began, ignoring everything she'd said, yet again, "I'm fully prepared to treat you as one of our esteemed guests, rather than a lowly prisoner."
Lucy glowered up at him. "What do you mean by that?" she asked, making sure to inject as much venom into her tone as possible. A damp, crawling sensation suddenly appeared on her leg, and she screamed. A purple bug fell away in the process, scurrying away to what Lucy assumed were quieter areas.
"See?" José gave the bug a pointed look. "You don't want to stay in here, do you?" Lucy wanted to wipe that smug look off of that clown's face. Or maybe just spit in it. She wasn't entirely sure which one she wanted to do more. "I have a beautifully decorated suite waiting for you." He smiled with a faux-fatherly concern. "All you have to do is behave."
Well, if they wanted her to behave, they were in for a shock. For once, Lucy decided to take a page out of that demon cat's book, hoping that he never found out. "Why does your guild keep attacking us?!" she demanded, inserting bravado into her tone, and managing to sound braver than she felt at that moment. True, she was feeling very indignant and angry over her kidnapping, and disturbed that it was by a clown, of all things, but she certainly didn't feel brave.
"Who is us?" José replied, looking confused for a moment, before a meaner look spread across his face. "Oh, I'm sorry. Are you talking about Fairy Tail?" He gave her a dark look. "It was a means to an end, and that's all."
Lucy froze. "What?"
José spread his hands out at his side. "You see, we were working towards our main objective of acquiring a certain someone. They happened to be a member of Fairy Tail, so if we had to destroy the guild to get to them, then so be it."
A pit began forming in the bottom of Lucy's stomach. With dread, she asked, "Who are you talking about?"
José tutted. "My, my. You're such a naïve young lady. Not at all what I'd expect from a debutante."
Lucy felt the blood drain from her face, and all feeling leave her body, leaving her with a drifting sensation and the vague feeling of shock. How had they found out about her? She had been so careful to never say her last name, ever since she'd ran away from home. But if Phantom had gone to all this work to kidnap her, then that had to mean that someone else had put them up to it. Someone powerful, Lucy would guess.
"I'm talking about you, of course. Lady Lucy, the privileged daughter of the wealthy Heartfilia family." José narrowed his eyes at her, as though he were a hawk surveying its prey. Lucy felt like she was being torn apart.
"How did you find out about that?" she asked, resigned. She half knew what the answer was going to be.
José continued, once again, as though she hadn't said a word, and Lucy gritted her teeth in irritation. That sort of behaviour was one of the many things she'd hated about the world she came from – men talking over her, ignoring her as though she wasn't there, deciding her future for her. "I'm surprised you never told your fellow guild members the truth. And I don't understand why the daughter of a wealthy tycoon would stoop to such cheap and dangerous work as wizarding for such a low class guild."
"You don't have to understand. Our guild is far better than your sorry excuse of one anyway!" Lucy snapped, unable to take the insult to Fairy Tail lying down – or, as was the case, sitting down with her hands tied behind her back. She paused and took a deep breath. "So I've been kidnapped?" she guessed, still glaring heatedly.
"No, my dear. I promise it's not like that. We're not looking for ransom money. We're just doing our job." Just as Lucy had figured – someone had put them up to this. Before she could ask who dared to try and have her kidnapped, José continued talking. "We were hired by your father to bring you home to him."
For the second time, Lucy felt herself get cold, and floods of memories from her childhood came rushing back. Her father was the one responsible for her kidnapping, for Levy getting hurt and the guild hall being destroyed? The anger slowly started to come back, this time starting as a slow, simmering heat in the pit of her stomach.
"Why would he come looking for me?" she asked, speaking more to herself than anyone else. It didn't make sense to her. In all the time that she'd been gone, her father had never sought her out before, so why now? "Why would he want me back?"
"You seem so confused. Any father would want their child back, especially one that ran away from home."
Lucy shook her head, staring at the floor. "Not him. Honestly, I'm shocked that he noticed that I left." Something snapped inside her, as though the slowly simmering rage pushed itself over the edge. "I'm never going back to that house, and you can't make me go back! I don't want anything to do with him!"
José sighed, as though he'd been expecting her outburst. "Oh, dear." He gave a self-deprecating smile. "I should have known that you'd be problematic."
"I'm a Fairy Tail wizard," Lucy declared proudly. "Being problematic is what we're best at." She punctuated her sentence with a light spit at the ground, forcing José to look disgusted at her behaviour. Lucy inwardly smirked. See if that made her the so-called debutante.
"Something I'm very aware of," José agreed darkly.
"So you might as well just let me go," Lucy said, all traces of fear leaving her. She was a Fairy Tail wizard. She'd faced down hordes of enemies before now, and she wasn't afraid of this clown. Even if he was the guild master.
"I'm sorry, but I can't do that," José answered, not sounding very sorry at all.
Lucy quickly thought about the situation, and she answered with the only thing that came into her head. "Please… I need to go to the bathroom." She added a tinge of desperation to her tone as an extra effect.
José stared at her for a long moment, as though he couldn't believe what he was hearing. "Give me a break," he said slowly, sound exasperated. "You don't think I'll fall for the oldest trick in the book, do you?"
Lucy started squirming as much as she could, scrunching her face up in what she hoped was discomfort. "No, for real! I'm gonna wet myself!"
"Fine then." Before Lucy's hopes could get raised, José produced a rusty old bucket from... somewhere. Where, Lucy didn't know, and didn't want to know. She stared at it, feeling like her soul was floating away from her body.
"A BUCKET?!" she snapped. What sort of prison was this? Was Phantom Lord so paranoid or so ruthless that they didn't even have toilets in their prison block? What the hell was up with that?! And the gods only knew how many germs lived on that thing.
"I'm ready for any old trick you might throw my way," José chuckled, obviously thinking that he'd caught her out. Well, in that case.
"Guess it'll have to work," Lucy said standing up and walking over to the bucket. José's eyes immediately bugged out of his head, and he spluttered indignantly at Lucy's behaviour.
"You're going to use it?!" he demanded, sounding as though he couldn't believe what he was seeing. Lucy continued wiggling, making motions to try and push her skirt around, and José's face went bright red. "Well, I have never met such a vulgar young lady!" Lucy inwardly smirked. If he thought she was vulgar, then what did that make Erza? "I'll turn away because I'm a gentleman!" he announced, turning his back to her with a flourish of his cloak.
Lucy immediately grinned. Not wasting any time, she launched forward. She raised her foot into the air, and kicked José right where it hurt him the most. The resultant, high pitched scream was music to her ears as she ran past him towards the door. As she got to the doorway, she realised that it lead to the outside of a tower – and that there seemed to be no way down from where she was. Lucy stared out at the area around the tower, hope sinking in her chest once again.
"Oops… I forgot to mention... this cell is several stories high," came José's pained voice, and Lucy turned to see the Phantom guild master slowly struggle to his feet, hands covering his front as though she might kick at him again.
Before he could take any more steps towards her, there was the brief smell of burning, as though someone had set fire to a pile of trees, and a second later, a giant flame appeared in the air in front of her. A person formed in the flames, and within seconds, Natsu was stepping out of it, face set in a dangerous expression. Lucy's heart immediately lifted. They'd found her.
"Not another step," Natsu said slowly, raising one hand towards José, fire burning around his fingers. Lucy chanced another look at his face, and was taken aback by the sheer fury radiating from him. He was snarling, the long canines glinting dangerously in the firelight. He shuddered in a breath. It looked as though he was fighting for control of his temper. "You kidnapped one of my guild mates." It wasn't a question, and his expression turned darker, more fierce, towards the end. "You'll find one of yours at the bottom of this tower. He's still alive."
He grinned, slightly maniacally. "Mostly."
With that, Natsu reached back and grabbed hold of Lucy's arm, and she felt the familiar sensation of the warm fire enveloping her for a brief moment. When the fire disappeared, they were standing in a small clearing in the middle of a forest. Lucy looked around. The first thing she noticed was that there was no sight of the tower where she'd been held captive. The second thing she noticed was that there was a perfect, chair-sized rock near her, and she immediately went and sat down, suddenly feeling drained.
The whole reason for Fairy Tail getting hurt was because her father had hired Phantom to kidnap her. Everything that had happened recently was because of her father and, by extension, because of her. Lucy felt sick, and she wondered whether she was worthy of being a member of the guild after that. How could she continue to be part of a guild that her father had wilfully hurt?
She felt Natsu sit down next to her after a moment, and the brief warmth across her wrists told Lucy that he'd burned away the ropes around them. Absently, she brought her arms against her chest and started rubbing at her left wrist, slightly red from where she'd been pulling against it in an effort to escape.
"Hey?" Natsu asked, and Lucy turned her head to look at him. He was looking at her with a concerned look, as though that dangerous expression, full of fire and fury, had never even been there. "You okay?"
Just like that, it was as though the floodgates had been opened. She didn't cry like a baby, but Lucy couldn't stop a few stray tears from leaking out of her eyes. "I don't want to leave," she said shakily, wringing her hands together. "I love Fairy Tail… I don't want to leave!"
"Hey now, no one's gonna make you leave because of this!" Natsu quickly responded, sounding alarmed that Lucy had started crying. Indeed, when Lucy glanced over at him, there was a look of distinct alarm on his face, and his hands were gesturing wildly. "It's not your fault that they kidnapped you!"
Lucy sniffed. "But it is," she disagreed, lowering her gaze to the ground. More tears continued to well up, and she couldn't stop them, nor could she stop her thoughts and doubts from escaping. "It was my dad who hired them to kidnap me. He's the reason why everyone's gotten hurt." She sighed, mind full of dark thoughts. "None of it would have happened if it wasn't for me."
"Bullshit." Lucy snapped her head up at the harsh word, and Natsu continued talking. "Even if you hadn't been with us, Phantom would have found some other way to fight with us. We were fighting them long before we met you." Although his expression was soft, his voice was oddly stern, which was odd coming from Natsu.
"But my dad…" Lucy tried to remind him, trailing off dejectedly.
"Obviously loves you enough to do this," Natsu said gently, bumping his shoulder against hers. He gave her a slight smile. "People do crazy and terrible things for the people they love." He chuckled, slightly bitterly. "I can see why he'd do it, at least. Doesn't mean I'm happy about it, though." He wrapped an arm around Lucy's shoulders, a familiar gesture that made Lucy smile. "'snot your fault, Lucy, and I'll turn anyone who tries to come after you again into ash."
Lucy just hummed noncommittally, the tightness in her chest loosening. She'd never say it to him, of course, but Natsu had managed to make her feel slightly better.
"If it makes you feel any better," Natsu started, tone oddly cheerful, "what my brother did out of love was way worse than all of this." Lucy made a questioning noise out of interest. She'd never heard about Natsu having a brother, or any family members at all, really, aside from the dragon that raised him, so hearing about this mysterious brother was new to her. "He killed thousands of people and created horrors straight out of nightmares, all just so he could resurrect me." He paused. "Although I think the killing part was accidental. Mostly."
Lucy stared at him, and somewhere in the back of her mind, she remembered Natsu talking to her and the others on Galuna Island. What had he said, again? Lucy struggled with her thoughts for a moment, trying to get them into order and to just remember, damnit, when it came to her like a bolt of lightning.
Zeref did all this just to resurrect me.
"Zeref is your brother?!" Lucy blurted out, trying to keep her voice low but also finding it impossible because her friend was the brother of the most notorious black wizard ever. Natsu gave her a smile, cheerful as always.
"Big brother, actually," he corrected, as though there was a difference. He gave her another cheerful look and another nudge to the shoulder. "See? Things could be worse. At least your father isn't creating demons."
Lucy stared at him. "You're the worst demon ever," she said flatly, and Natsu grinned at her. Lucy couldn't help but notice, though, that despite the wide grin and the cheerful expression, there seemed to be something else lurking beneath the surface. Before she could question him on it, though, Natsu swept her up in another conversation, and the small observation was pushed to the back of her mind.
Author's note: So, that was that. Hopefully, it was okay, and please let me know your thoughts on it!