Sooo, this was not what I planned to write at all...BUT, I really like how it turned out…

Let's be honest, is anyone actually surprised my brain went off the carefully marked path and dove off a cliff?

Yeah, didn't think so.

Anywho, the answers to your every question! (ok, not all of them, but some! SOME I SAY!)

ENJOY!

Lucy gasped for breath as she folded herself as small as she could get. Curled into a ball with her arms wrapped around her legs, she scrunched her eyes closed, trying her damnedest to forget where she was. Tears built up pressure behind her eyes, her throat clenching as she struggled to hold them in.

Findyourhappyplace. Findyourhappyplace. Findyourhappyplace.

The internal chanting wasn't doing as much good as actually being able to think of a happy place would do, but anything was better than remembering...that.

"You see now? Do you see what you made me do? This is all your fault Lucy. This is happening because of what you did." Lucy shook her head violently trying to fling away her father's voice to the recesses of her mind; somewhere she could forget for a while. She'd never really forget.

A large warm hand tentatively touched her back and she flinched. The hand left her back immediately, only to be replaced shortly after by firm hands gently pulling her hair back from where she'd ripped it out of her ponytail to be a flimsy shield from the world. She flinched back again, but carefully kept her eyes tightly shut as light fell on her lids.

"Oi, Blondie. We're safe. You can open your eyes." Gajeel's familiar low rumble helped drown out her father's words, though she could still hear them, faintly whispering to her. "They can't get in. We're shut in tight."

Instead of helping, his comment just reminded her where she was. Lucy gasped for breath, a sob escaping her as a few stubborn tears forced themselves from beneath her tense lids.

Suddenly she heard a familiar voice in her ear, barely above a whisper.

"Lucy…?"

Her eyes popped open, desperate to find the pinkette she could hear, forgetting in her panic that there was no way he could be here with her. What she saw instead was Gajeel, his eyebrows still furrowed in concern, but his eyes lightening with relief. He wasn't unwelcome, but he also wasn't who she really wanted to see.

"Natsu?" she whimpered desperately, praying fervently that he could hear her too.

"Blondie" "Lucy!" "He's not here." "What's wrong?!"

Gajeel and Natsu's words scrambled together for her as they both rushed to answer her. Her brain lagged, trying to sort out their words. They both kept talking, making it more difficult with every word.

"Just hang in there." "Luce! I'm coming okay?" "As soon as we get what we need you can leave ok?" "Whatever he's doing to you, I won't let him anymore!" "Lucy! You gotta snap out of it! I don't know what to tell him to look for!" "Wait, is that Gajeel with you?"

Eventually Lucy managed to shush them.

"Shhhh. Please, stop talking! Both of you…" Her voice came out in a tremulous whisper, but they fell silent immediately; Gajeel out of confusion more than anything else. He traded glances with the only other occupant of the room. The Frenchman looked back at him, just as bewildered.

However, just then, whoever they'd heard in the hall started banging on the door to the panic room. Gajeel quickly leveled the gun at the green-haired guy again. Sol raised his hands again and stepped carefully away from the computer, positioning himself on the opposite side of the room, keeping Gajeel between him and the keyboard. He nodded down at the girl curled up between them. The two locked gazes for another weighted moment before the noirette lowered the gun, turning back to his blonde companion. He ventured a comment in a tone he hoped came off as comforting. Helping people deal with feelings and such shit was not his thing.

"Lucy, Natsu is busy. He'll come get you later. For now, you need to-" Gajeel was cut off as a finger uncurled from Lucy's fist and landed over his lips. She stared him down, a hint of sanity peeking through the wild desperation in her eyes.

"Please be quiet. He's talking to me." Removing her hand from his mouth, she touched her ear instead. "Natsu? Where are you?"

"I'm on my way, Luce. Just hang on okay? I'll be there soon!"

A whoosh of air left her and her eyes closed again. She tried to calm her hammering heart, taking deep breaths and letting them go. "Okay. Please hurry."

"I will. I promise. Listen Luce-ah shit." Natsu cut off then, causing Lucy's eyes to fly open once more when she felt something collide with her cheekbone, pain blossoming almost instantly from the spot. She cried out, instinctively covering her face with one hand. Her eyes frantically spun, landing on Gajeel's again.

"You tellin' me you guys can hear each other now?! Shit. Like this bonded thing needed to get any weirder...show me your face." Despite his harsh words, his fingers were gentle as he peeled back Lucy's hand, revealing a small cut and a bruise already beginning to swell on the apple of her cheek. "Yikes. He get hit by someone?"

"Qu'est-ce que c'est que ce bordel ?!" Lucy ignored the third member of the room, nodding, but Gajeel glared at him on her behalf.

"What the fuck did you just say?"

"Moi? Non, non, non! What is she saying? How is she talking to someone? No one is communicating over your phones. I would know!" The green-haired man adjusted his glasses and pointed to the computer sitting on the built-in counter that served as his desk.

"It's complicated and none of your fucking business, Frenchie. So why dontcha shut the fuck up and-" Gajeel cut off as a whimper escaped from Lucy. During his tirade, he'd stood up and moved away from her, unknowingly exposing the room behind him. Lucy had almost forgotten where she was, with her friend's broad shoulders to hide the view, and Natsu's pain to distract her.

She was assaulted by the view of the small room surrounding her. But instead of seeing the clinical white industrial tile and smooth steel of the room as it actually was, she saw the horrifying image that haunted her nightmares.

Red pooled on the tile, creeping infinitesimally closer to her trembling feet, bare against the cold floor.

Though the woman in front of her whimpered and cried out, Lucy could still hear the drip drop of the blood leaving her body. Like the leaky bathtub on the third floor. The one that Daddy didn't like. Drip, drip, drop.

Her eyes turned upward to her daddy's back at the fleeting thought, tears streaming from her eyes as she struggled not to cry out. She bit down on her lip as a strangled noise escaped her, despite her efforts at silence. A tear splashed to the floor, joining the rest of her own little pool of tears. She was trying not to cry. He'd told her not to. But she just couldn't stop. And because she couldn't stop, her daddy didn't either.

He took one look at her and struck out again, the metal baton in his hand connecting solidly and breaking ribs. The crunchy, squishy sound forced another tear from her eyes as his victim cried out in pain. Quickly, before her daddy could glance back, she wiped at her eyes and nose, trying to hide the signs of her tears. If she kept crying, he would never stop.

"You see now? Do you see what you made me do? This is all your fault Lucy. This is happening because of what you did. There are consequences when little girls don't do what they're told."

"I'm so...sorry…" Lucy hiccuped out. Her words just seemed to make him madder. His weapon whipped out again, striking the woman's knee. "No Lucy. Heartfilias aren't sorry. Heartfilias don't do things to be sorry for. They listen to their fathers. You listen to me and do what I say. This is only happening because you didn't do what you were told. Do you understand?"

"Yes, Daddy," she whispered, staring down at her perfectly painted toenails. Grammi had spent an hour helping her paint them the day before.

A firm hand gripped her chin, forcing her gaze toward the woman tied to the chair on the other side of the room. Lucy was pressed up against the steel door, frozen in her little flannel nightie where she'd ended up an hour ago as she tried to run from the room. She could barely see the big red button that she'd tried to press over and over out of the corner of her eye. It didn't open the door. Nothing opened the door.

Nothing but Daddy. He'd told her so.

She believed him.

"No Lucy. Look at what you did. Look at the consequences of your actions. And you're too old to be calling me that. I'm your father, not your daddy."

"Okay Da-Father."

At her quiet word he stalked back to the other side of the room, slapping the woman there across the face. She didn't respond, appearing to be asleep. Her daddy looked back at her and raised a hand to strike again, eyes on his daughter.

Lucy longed to look away, but was terrified of what else would happen if she did. Her eyes burned, but the tears had stopped. She stared wide-eyed ahead of her as she was told, barely daring to blink. Lucy focused in on her clothing, unable to bear seeing her puffy, unrecognizable face again. She could see where blood and sweat had darkened the fabric of the woman's dress. The dress was covered in little flowers that Lucy used to like counting while she was taking a bath. Back before she was big enough to bathe herself.

Little brown spots speckled across the shabby but neat white apron that covered most of the dress. Those little brown spots were from when she'd shown Lucy how to make chocolates for Valentine's day, and Lucy had dropped the bowl, breaking it and speckling them both in chocolate.

Her eyes drifted up to the woman's face, no longer twisted in pain, but not alight with energy and love as it normally was. Her usually neat bun had gone askew, chunks of hair falling down around her face and neck as the scrunchie Lucy had given her two Christmases ago clung halfheartedly to the remaining tresses. The turquoise locks swayed as breath left her mouth.

Grammi...Lucy thought silently as her vision blurred with tears again. You're the only one who really loves me and I did this to you. I'm so, so sorry.

Tears leaked out of her eyes.

And her father began again.

Natsu stopped, struggling to swallow the pain in his throat and his chest. It felt like he couldn't breathe again.

"Lucy?" he gasped. His words finally alerted his companions to the fact he had halted several feet behind them. They swiftly turned back for him.

Gray said something, but he didn't hear it, focused on the familiar feminine voice whimpering his name in his ear. "Lucy! What's wrong?!" he exclaimed.

"Shit," Gray muttered, stalking forward down the hall to see if there was anyone nearby to hear his outburst. He got to the corner and glanced around it, quickly pulling his head back. There was a group of people down the next hall. They didn't seem to hear Natsu, but that didn't mean they wouldn't. He jogged quickly back to Natsu making gestures for him to quiet down.

Natsu lowered his voice, but kept talking. "Luce! I'm coming okay? Whatever he's doing to you, I won't let him anymore!" Suddenly, he heard another voice coming through. One he recognized. "Wait, is that Gajeel with you?"

Lucy shushed him then, and he shut up. Gray seized the moment.

"Will you be quiet? There are people just around the corner!" he hissed. Weisslogia got serious and went to check for himself. Coming back, he nodded.

"That's the girl's room. Jude just went in with Brandish. Let's go take out Ika while she's alone!"

Weiss turned and headed off at a jog, Gray and Natsu on his heels. As he followed them, Natsu could hear Lucy's voice in his ear again.

"Natsu? Where are you?"

"I'm on my way, Luce. Just hang on okay? I'll be there soon!"

"Okay. Please hurry." Gray and Weiss turned the corner ahead of him.

"I will. I promise. Listen Luce," Natsu turned the corner and came face to face with a pink-haired woman with dead eyes. "Ah shit." Her fist collided with his cheek in his moment of surprise, hurting a hell of a lot more than it should have. He ducked the second punch, catching a hand wearing brass knuckles.

Well that explained the gash on his cheek. With a silent apology to Lucy for the injury, he faked a swing with one hand while his leg darted out, sweeping the woman's legs from under her.

In the moment she was down, he scanned the hall, seeing Weiss and Gray getting up from where the woman had assaulted them in a path of destruction. Gray was scrambling to pick up a gun on the carpet a dozen or so feet away. Weiss held his arm awkwardly with his other hand, wincing in pain.

Looks like Plan T was gonna have to do.

Natsu's arm immediately came up to block the woman's next attack as he turned his focus back to her. She was exceptionally skilled, immediately going for his weak points. He blocked her attacks automatically: throat strike, kick to the knee, punch at his ribs. She was good.

But she wasn't as good as him.

His boxing training fell by the wayside again as childhood muscle memory took over. He grabbed her wrist on her next attempted punch and shoved his palm into the outside of her elbow with full force behind it. The other pinkette cried out as the delicate bones of her arm snapped. Despite the pain and uselessness of her right arm, the woman struck out, spinning her body to give the high kick to his head the greatest impact possible. Natsu merely fell forward under it, landing on his hands and spinning to deliver her a kick of his own. The blow knocked her over; she was unable to catch herself and hold her broken arm immobile at the same time.

Like a practiced break dancer, Natsu finished his spin and dropped his legs to the side, ending upright. The pink-haired mercenary stared up at him wide-eyed. It was like she was looking at a ghost. The way he moved…

Natsu turned away, looking to see Gray and Weiss waiting for him, each pointing a gun at the woman. Seeing they had it in hand, he starting toward the door she'd originally been guarding. Already moving on in his true quest.

"It can't be…" she gasped, staring at him as he walked away. "You're...you're from Pergrande aren't you? Where did you learn that?! Who taught you to move that way?" Her words halted his motion. He turned back to her with a cold, pitiless glint in his eyes.

"I learned it in hell. From the devil himself." Her pupils shrunk to dots as she trembled. One word dropped from her lips as she used her legs to push herself away from him.

"Zeref?"

Natsu followed her, shoving her with the sheer force of his presence until her back was against the wall and she had nowhere left to run. Then he leaned down over her and sneered into her face.

"If you knew him, then you know what I can do to you." He plucked the radio clipped to her waistband and chucked it as far as he could down the hall. It hit the far wall and broke into multiple pieces, scattering over the plush carpeting muted thumps. She winced as he leaned closer. "Don't move, and I won't come back and kill you."

Without waiting for a response, he turned and walked past his grim companions. They traded a look.

Gray was stunned. Even when his roommate had lashed out during a flashback, he seemed more afraid than anything else. And when he'd avenged his friends previously he'd been angry, but never to the point of inhumane action. Gray had never seen Natsu quite like this.

But Weisslogia had.

So many years ago, Igneel's sergeant had been a key member in the raiding party to take down the famous warlord, Brother Zeref, and he had seen Natsu in action before Zeref himself had attempted to take his life. Only someone of his level could have touched him. It had been a stroke of luck that Zeref turned on Natsu when he did, and been distracted, or the two of them could have taken out Unit 777 without breaking a sweat. The blonde soldier twitched as a shiver went down his spine and fell into step behind the lithe pinkette, stalking down the hall as though he was a lion pacing its territory. Gray followed, brow furrowed and firearm held high.

As Natsu reached for the door, he felt a wave of adrenaline hit him from Lucy. She was massively panicking again. It halted him in his tracks, breaking him out of the reckless mindset that he'd fallen back into. It gave him a moment of clarity to think through what he was about to do.

Instead of barging into the room guns blazing, so to speak, he pulled a round black object and his lighter out of his pocket. Breathing deeply, he closed his eyes, freezing in place.

He stayed there for several seconds, just...breathing. Gray cleared his throat.

"Hey...you gonna do something with that, or what?"

"Shut up freezer burn. I'm getting in touch with Luce…" he trailed off as he started the process again, finding it really difficult to maintain his hazy mindset when her whole body was screaming at him to run or beat the shit out of everything. Finally, he heard Gajeel and someone he didn't recognize arguing. He knew he was back in her head and he opened his eyes.

Everything was still black. He blinked, trying to quell his own panic at his sudden blindness. He tried again, with the same result. Closing his eyes one more time, he whispered under his breath.

"Come on Lucy. I need to see what's going on."

And he opened his eyes again.

Thankfully, he didn't see black. But he didn't see the steady images he was used to seeing either. Instead they came in flashes. Images of a woman in her thirties tied to a chair while a man stood over her, holding something.

Then, a split second image of blood on the floor. Another of a little girl's feet from above, looking down. Another of the man, who looked a lot like Lucy, getting in her face. But what struck him more than any of the images was that he could feel her crying.

Natsu blinked, bringing a hand up to his face to wipe away the tear he felt, but finding nothing. It startled him. Was she not crying after all? His question went unanswered as he was broken out of his moment of confusion by Gray's impatience.

"Natsu, hurry the fuck up. They could come out any minute. What are you doing!?"

Natsu glared at him, still distracted by the feeling of tears running down his face where there weren't any. Under his breath, he spoke to her.

"Lucy. Hold your breath and run for the door when I say, ok?"

He got no response. But somehow, he knew she heard him. It was subtle. As though her heart skipped a beat or something. All he knew, was that she had reacted to his voice and he'd felt it. Content that she'd have warning, he lit the little bomb-shaped object in his hand, opened the door a crack and threw it in, closing the door behind it.

He gestured his companions back away from the door and they all waited.

A few tense moments later, a man and a woman burst from the room, surrounded by a thick cloud of smoke. They coughed as the smoke unfurled around them in the dark hallway, smearing the distinct lines between person and house. Gray and Weisslogia stepped forward, guns leveled at them. The two eventually realized their predicament and raised their hands, glaring at Weisslogia. He glared back.

Natsu ignored them all, taking a deep breath and rushing into the smoke filled room, staying low. Lucy should have left the room first. Unless she was restrained somehow. He glanced around in a panic. He searched the room, confused when it looked nothing like the sleek tiled room he'd seen through her eyes.

Tile...the bathroom! He rushed for the only other door in the room, bursting in to find it disappointingly empty. And also not the room he'd been expecting.

And, most importantly, no Lucy.

An open window let in a breeze that began to clear the air, pulling wisps of smoke apart like foam on the sea. He stuck his head out the window, but, unsurprisingly, she wasn't there either.

So where was Lucy?!

Natsu hurried back through the room, coming back out into the hallway without so much as coughing. He knew how to handle his own smoke.

The pinkette looked more closely at the two people who had rushed from the room and growled deep in his throat when he saw the man from his vision, the one beating the woman in the chair. He rounded on him, grabbing the lapels of his suit and slamming him against the nearest wall.

"WHERE'S LUCY!?" he yelled in his face, causing the older man to glare defiantly back at him. Had Natsu been in the mood to pay attention, he'd have seen the smallest hint of uneasiness in his eyes.

"I'd like to know that myself. Now get off me, vermin," the man snapped back, eyes blazing with hatred.

Natsu didn't back down. "What do you mean, you'd like to know? You were just with her!"

"No, I wasn't. I haven't seen my daughter since dinner. As you should have noticed, her room is empty." His sharply clipped words had two effects on Natsu.

One, he realized that the man in front of him, while the same one from his Lucy-vision, was much older, beginning to gray at his temples and heftier around the middle. Which only served to confuse him further.

A two, he finally figured out who the guy was. Without another word, he drew back his fist and punched Jude Heartfilia squarely across the face. And then did it again for good measure.

"And Monsieur Heartfilia did all of that to his own daughter?!"

"Yeah. Plus whatever fucked up thing he did in this room that's got her practically fucking catatonic," Gajeel replied. He set Lucy down on the small cot the French guy had set up. Apparently the room was stocked with a shitload of useful stuff. He was seriously going to build one of these into his own house someday. Fuck, maybe he'd just live in a giant panic house. Gajeel smiled at the thought, but quickly lost his mirth at a small, almost childlike, sound from his girlfriend's best friend. The blonde curled up, trembling with her eyes closed.

Gajeel ran a hand through his hair and gazed helplessly down at her. He was pretty sure she was having a flashback. He'd tried to shake her out of it, but the motion had just resulted in her screaming bloody murder and still not waking up, so he had opted for the wait and see route.

And he felt pretty useless. Levy was so much better as stuff like this. He found a part of him aching to talk to her. It was weird for him, but soulmates did that kind of thing...right?

"The man is a monster." The green-haired man came to stand beside him. Gajeel reflexively leveled the gun at him again, but the lithe man waved it away as though it were an unneeded formality, instead of a steel killing machine. "There is no need for such things. No money is worth carrying out the wishes of a man who would betray so deeply un si cher enfant."

Gajeel didn't know exactly what the man said, but he got the gist of it. He lowered the gun, tucking it back into the back of his jeans. The cold steel sent a shiver down his spine. "You got kids?"

"Non," he replied quietly. "Not anymore. I had a daughter once. Ma petite Sonya."

Gajeel didn't reply, merely watching the man. The deep sadness in his eyes had taken over the glint of humor he otherwise wore like protective armor. It was like seeing through a chink in that armor to the deep river of melancholy beneath. There was something so familiar about it.

"Help us then. We're here to tear the bastard a new one and make sure he can never hurt her again. Sound like something you'd be interested in?"

The green haired man beside him straightened to his full height and looked Gajeel in the eye. The noirette was surprised to see that the tech specialist was almost as tall as he was when he chose to be. "Possibly. What can I do?" He maintained the seriousness of the previous moment, not a hint of mirth evident.

Gajeel smiled grimly at him. Jude had made a serious mistake hiring this guy. One that would bite him in the ass. "Lucy is positive her shitty dad is doing something illegal. And that there will be proof on that computer. Think you can find anything?"

"Absolument," the green-haired man replied, the twinkle returning to his eye in an instant. "If there is something to find, I will certainly find it, no matter how much digging it takes!" He dragged over a box of supplies to replace his broken chair and began typing. Seeming to remember something, he grabbed a headset off the counter-turned-desk and motioned to Gajeel, tapping his ear before speaking into the microphone. "Mademoiselle Cyan? Are you still there?"

Gajeel grinned and pulled his phone from his pocket, shoving an earbud into his ear.

"-course I'm still here! You've been ignoring me for long enough! You'll be sorry! You'll rue the day you ever-"

"Lev, it's cool, he's with us now." Gajeel cut off her adorable tirade, knowing that she would keep it up forever unless someone stopped her. There was a beat of silence. Then several voices chimed in all at once.

"What?!"

Gajeel sighed. Why was he always the only one who knew what the fuck was going on? A blessing and a curse. He guessed being awesome had to have its downsides too: more work for him. "Alright everybody, listen up. I'm in the panic room with Lucy and the guy who was jacking our call. Turns out Heartfilia's an ass to everyone, so he switched sides. He's looking for the dirt on Lucy's dad as we speak."

"Well alright then! Nice work honey!" Levy's appreciative tone didn't do anything to hurt his recently inflated ego. "Then everyone report in and let's see what we're working with!"

"Red reporting in. Blue and I are patrolling the grounds. Entrances appear to be secure. Prisoners still…" There was a pause in which it sounded like there was a bit of scuffle and then a solid thwack. Erza continued as though nothing had happened, "...unconscious."

"Hey, it's Gray. I'm with Pink and another turncoat, we'll call him White. Turns out he knew Pink's dad? Weisslogia."

"No shit, Weiss is here? Punch him in the knee for me will ya?" Gajeel barked out fondly.

"Huh?" Gray responded.

"He'll know what it means."

"Whatever. Point is, we've taken out some pink-haired-" There was muttering as Gray took the phone away from his mouth, then came back. "Eh, I guess her name is Ikaruga. Anyway, she's down, and so is the other woman guarding Lucy's room. Plus, we've got Jude."

"Wait, seriously? What's his status?" Levy closed the game of solitaire she'd been playing on her computer and opened up a document to start taking notes. Keeping track of seven-plus people's movements in one's head wasn't easy. Or necessary.

"Currently? Unconscious. Though he's lucky he's not dead. Pink decked him full force in the head. Twice. If he'd actually thought it through and punched him somewhere not completely made of protective bone, like his neck, he'd be long gone."

"Well...okay then…"

"Hey, Black, you said you've got eyes on Lucy right?" Gray deliberately said the line as though he were trying to get a point through to a distracted kindergartner eavesdropping on the call.

Or just Natsu.

The next moment there was a scuffle with a lot of yelled insults and Natsu piped in. "Where's Lucy?!"

Gray could be heard in the background yelling, "Hey! You have your own phone! Give it back!"

"Panic room. I'd give you directions, but I have no idea how we got here. Lucy got us through the secret passages." Gajeel shrugged. They could figure it out. He'd already done most of their work for them anyway.

There was another muttered conversation in the background and then Natsu was back. "Got it. Weiss, I mean White, knows the way. See you soon." They could all hear the electronic click of the phone hanging up.

"Shit! I didn't get the chance to tell him about the guy trying to get in!" As though Gajeel's words had summoned him, there were several large bangs against the door. Sol clicked into a minimized window on his monitor and an image of the room containing the door to the panic room came into view. A stocky guy with long blonde hair stood holding a gun pointed at the door.

Apparently the door was, in fact, bulletproof.

Another six or so gunshots went off as they watched the tiny image of the man empty his clip into the door, despite the ricocheting bullets whizzing past him.

"And, uh, apparently he's armed…" Gajeel finished lamely, glad there was a solid steel door between them and the nutjob outside. "And fucking nuts."

"I'll try and get ahold of Gray and Nats-uh, Pink!" Levy replied immediately.

But it turned out she didn't need to. Gunshots weren't exactly inconspicuous.

Gajeel and Sol watched open-mouthed as Natsu busted into the room, a gun in hand, and promptly shot the man in one of his kneecaps before the he had even registered he had company. Natsu followed it up by taking the gun he'd dropped and hitting him upside the head with it, effectively knocking Zancrow unconscious.

Then he kicked him in the ribs. Just for good measure.

Sol slowly turned to look at Gajeel, swallowing heavily. "He's on our side, right?"

Gajeel nodded. Fuck, if he didn't know Natsu, he'd be scared shitless too. The look on his old friend's face made it clear he'd lost whatever patience he possessed. Which wasn't much. His eyes almost glowed with anger. "Open the door. Now."

Sol hesitated, eyeing the pink-haired man on his screen, but he eventually typed in the code needed and the slightly dented door slid open.

The minute he saw Lucy through the open doorway, Natsu forgot everything else. He dropped the guns he was carrying and stepped into the room. He recognized it immediately. The white tile, the steel surfaces. The now broken chair lying on the floor. It was definitely the room he'd seen through Lucy.

But the dying woman wasn't there. The blood was gone, and there was no younger cousin or whatever of Jude Heartfilia torturing Lucy, a child, or anyone else.

Suddenly, he remembered the one moment that had seemed out of place, and he figured it out.

The kid's feet. Lucy hadn't been looking down at a kid's feet. Those had been Lucy's feet. A much younger Lucy.

Somehow, he'd seen her flashback.

Natsu's eyes shot wide and he almost tripped in his haste to get Lucy the fuck out of there. He picked her up and carefully carried her through the doorway, running as far away from the tiled box of horrors as he could get.

He passed the unconscious Zancrow, bleeding all over the floor.

He passed Gray and Weiss as they stood guard outside the door. Gray started to call out to him and tried to follow, but the older man stopped him with a hand on his shoulder.

Natsu kept on running, looking for somewhere she would feel safe. Eventually, he tried a random door, kicking it open. Luckily, it looked like a guest room or something.

Carefully, Natsu sat on the edge of the bed and settled Lucy on his lap, finally feeling the burn in his arms from carrying her. She shivered, whimpering slightly.

It nearly broke his heart to hear it.

"Oh Weirdo, what did he do to you?" he whispered as he wrapped his arms around her and pulled her tight against his chest. He hugged her tightly, his lips pressed into her neck. One hand ran endless circles over her back, keeping her securely against him as he subconsciously rocked her. But she didn't respond to any of it.

He closed his eyes and fell in with her breathing. He buried his other hand in her hair and willed himself to see what she was seeing.

This time, he didn't even need to open his eyes. After just a moment of darkness he was there with her.

Jude wiped his hands on a fluffy white towel, staining the monogrammed cotton with Grammi's blood.

"Now Lucy, whose fault was this?"

"Mine, Father." Her voice sounded unbelievably small, in volume and in spirit.

"Exactly. And what will you do in the future to keep this from happening?"

"I'll be good Father."

"Excellent. Are you going to tell anyone about this?"

"No Father."

"Good. Now, go back to bed. Your new governess will be here bright and early tomorrow."

"Yes Father."

With that Lucy/Natsu were finally released, feeling more like prisoners than ever and walked down the long hallway alone, making it all the way back to her bedroom before collapsing.

But she still didn't cry.

Instead, she lay awake all night, terrified of what would happen if she cried over what she'd done to her beloved Grammi. The only one left to care about her.

A tear slid down Natsu's cheek and dropped into Lucy's hair as an identical tear ran down Lucy's cheek and fell on him, caught in the well of his collarbone.

"It's not your fault," Natsu whispered sadly to the silence, brokenhearted on her behalf. "You didn't do anything wrong. You were just a kid doing what kids do. He's a monster Lucy. He doesn't deserve to have someone as wonderful as you. Please don't blame yourself. It's not your fault."

More tears spilled from his eyes, unbidden, but it took the sound of a sniffle from Lucy for him to understand that they weren't his.

"Lucy? Are you awake?" Natsu tried to pull away to look at her, but her arms clamped around him and she dove in even closer. After a moment of trying to pry her loose, he gave up and leaned back, taking her with him and rolling them onto their sides, so at least he wouldn't have to balance her on his lap anymore.

She went full-on koala bear in less than a second, wrapping all four limbs around him with almost suffocating force. "Hey, Luce," he whispered into her hair, his arms winding their way around her again. "I'm not going anywhere, ok? I just want to look at you. Please."

Finally, she eased her grip enough to pull her head up, a tear or two still streaming down her face and dripping off her chin. He reached up to brush them away, avoiding the cut on her cheek she'd gotten from him as his thumb swiped across her silky skin. It lingered there as he stared deeply into her eyes. They stayed that way for what felt like forever, but in truth lasted only seconds.

"Natsu?" she murmured.

"Yeah?" he whispered back, exhaustion filtering through him as his adrenaline rush faded. His eyes closed. Just for a moment.

"Take me home?"

He chuckled. "That's the plan."

"Good. And...Natsu?"

"Yeah?" he said again, his eyelids fluttering open to look at her. He was transfixed by the sudden warmth in her eyes. It heated him from his nose to his toes. She was about to say something important. Something he'd remember forever.

"I lo-"

Natsu leaned across the inches between them and pressed his lips to hers. Drawing back, he gave her a grin that reflected back all the warmth in her eyes.

"Me too."

Ok, so, a little shorter than normal, and no cliffhangers this chapter, but still one to go to finish up the arc. We've got a few loose ends you have noticed need tying…

It's pretty much just French translations this chapter...gonna have to throw out some references again next chapter...lol

"Qu'est-ce que c'est que ce bordel ?!"- "What the hell is going on?!"

"un si cher enfant"-"a most precious child" roughly...

"Ma petite Sonya"- "My little Sonya." If anyone is wondering where I got Sonya, she's a character in the FT movie Dragon Cry. I won't say anymore for those who haven't seen it, but for some reason, I could totally see Sol as her dad in my universe.

"Absolument"- "absolutely"

(these beautiful translations were provided by Google and fixed by blargolp (AKA kickassfuckingawesome French translator. yep one word. no shame.)