Disclaimer: I don't own any characters from Fairy Tail, the rights to them belong to Hiro Mashima. Not me.

Spellbound voice


Krak-THOOOOOOOOOOOM!

The thunder and lightning raged on, the rain befell and pelted all who stood beneath it.

Natsu ran while very heavy raindrops came hammering down on top and he couldn't help but flinch with pain when each and every one of those harsh raindrops hit him, feeling like teeny daggers piercing his fiery warm skin as each drop pelted him. He winced as each little raindrop hit him, the raindrops were pelting him hard and the thunder rumbling overhead was quite loud but he shrugged it off as he knew that he had bigger things to worry about other than the intensity of the rainfall.

His heart was pumping harder than it ever had before, his body was shaking with a mix of fear and adrenaline, his knees constantly threatened to buckle out from under him when he merely thought about Lucy getting hurt in any way, shape or form.

All of a sudden, the world lit up in a blinding flash momentarily as the lightning struck for a single instant.

The lightning flash was so intense that he had to blink several times to try and clear the black blotches from his vision. He stood there in a daze as he tried to recover his senses after the lightning strike, his eyes squinting to try and see clearly through blotchy and bleary eyes. It felt like a century flew by before his vision rectified itself and cleared up yet that didn't ease his haywire emotions.

As a matter of fact, those feelings worsened as his eyes fell on a limp, unconscious form.

His face became a mask of worry.

It was Lucy.

Natsu didn't waste any time and he felt as his heart leapt into his throat as he ran to her, fell to his knees next to her, and proceeded to put two fingers to her neck and he breathed a soft sigh of relief when he felt a soft thumping beneath his fingers —that same relief flooded over him like an ocean wave washing over a sandy shore when he felt that sign of life gently bumping the tips of his fingers.

A pulse.

Lucy had probably gotten frightened and fainted as a result as she had fallen to an unconscious heap on the castle gables after Lancer let go of her, her eyes closed and mouth very slightly agape. Natsu felt a heap of guilt and shame pile on as he cradled the unconscious young lady close to his chest, much like one would with a baby. His lips quivered and he swallowed a huge limp that had formed inside his throat that tried to manifest itself as a sob.

He squeezed his eyes shut, in an attempt to fight back against any oncoming tears, and shook his head stubbornly to himself.

This wasn't the time to start crying.

Not now.

He opened his eyes again, though, when he noticed that Lucy had somehow apparently grabbed hold of one of his hands.

Natsu looked into Lucy's face and realised just how weak she truly had become. She had not used her magic power and it must have taken a toll on her, but she didn't even seem to care about that. He could tell by looking into her eyes. She, as always, was not thinking about herself. She was thinking about someone else...him, he had to guess.

Natsu wanted to smile at this.

With or without a voice, Lucy would never change or lose that selflessness.

But the Dragon slayer with salmon pink hair just clung to her even tighter than before.

"L-L-Lucy!" He cried, holding Lucy carefully against him as she looked weakly up at him.

Lightning crashed overhead.

The blonde Fairy tail mage's eyes were watery and her lower lip quivered as she stared up pitifully at Natsu, she tried to keep her eyes open as she had taken to staring blankly up at the dark skies that loomed right above her. Her hazel brown eyes were overflowing with emotion as she knew that all of this was her fault, if she had just stayed home then none of this would be happening right now...!

The Celestial wizard's mind was in such a chaotic fog that her ears could hardly pick up Natsu's words as he started to speak to her.

He furled both arms around her both gently yet protectively.

"Shhhhhhhh. I'm here, I'm here! Don't try to move!" He spoke hushedly yet hurriedly. "I've gotcha..."

Now, Lucy would have been fibbing to the highest degree if she had claimed that she didn't enjoy being held in Natsu's strong arms with her head resting against his chest, she found being held by him comforting and it made her feel cared about. She almost wanted to go to sleep like this, safe in Natsu's arms, since being taken hostage had taken a lot out of her but she refused to sit by and let this unfold without her doing a single solitary thing; she needed to do what she had come to do in the first place —get her voice back.

Even now, she could feel it fading away from the charm it was locked in.

Lucy stared at Natsu long and hard in a way that basically asked "What are you doing here?"

"...I'm came to save you, ya big weirdo of a dummy," He said with a strong hint of relief present in his voice.

Lucy stared longingly into Natsu's eyes, that had turned their angry/determined jade green colour by now, and felt her heart pound with anticipation —she felt awful for causing so much trouble for everyone in her guild. Her chest felt tight and her mind was clouded with fatigue as she tried her hardest to will her legs to move in an effort to pry herself out of Natsu's arms and stand...she had to get her voice, she had to rip it out of that dumb poacher's hands...but she couldn't.

She felt so weak that it was unbearable.

She didn't want to have the others do what she should be doing herself!

That was the entire point of her running away to begin with.

"I can't...I can't let the others get hurt for my sake! I won't let that happen!"

An ear-splitting cymbal of thunder interrupted her thoughts.

The second the thunder exploded overhead, Lucy found herself subconsciously clinging to Natsu while throwing both of her arms around his neck before she could even think about it. Her eyes were wide open now and every inch of her expression was overflowing with this mix of panic and stunned shock.

Natsu rubbed her head, hoping to quell her worries and fears.

The fire wizard couldn't help but rock Lucy in his arms to try and calm her fears, even though he was pretty sure she didn't appreciate being treated like a baby; he could even feel her sudden scowl land on him while he stared at the poacher of sound.

Natsu observed as Happy continued trying to distract the Poacher of sound.

Happy just kept on scratching the wizard's face over and over and over again with his claws unsheathed , leaving a lot of bloody claw marks on his face. The startling thing, though, was that this man hardly seemed phased. Actually he just had the most enraged yet rather annoyed expression on his face. He grabbed hold of Happy's right wing, causing the young exceed to gasp and cease his assault, before the Poacher of sound threw him off of him.

It not only sent the blue cat hurtling quite a distance away but, in a swift instance, he had withdrew a second charm and had started chanting the incantation to steal Happy's voice.

Happy hovered idly for a few moments, watching as the Poacher of sound's new charm beamed a stream of light at his throat. Happy felt his spine crawl when he felt his own voice begin to suck out of him. He tried his best to move to avoid the beam literally sucking the voice out of him but it was sucking his voice out faster then he could move out of the way.

A crooked smirk curled on his little cat lips.

"Luckily for me, I don't need my voice to use my magic power!" He exclaimed smugly, his the volume of his voice diminishing with each word spoken and, without missing a beat, he reached forwards and slashed the guy across the face once more.

Lancer snarled in angered frustration, this cat was really getting on his nerves!

Natsu got up and intervened as he ran up to Lancer, smacked the hand that the sound poacher was holding the charm used to absorb Happy's voice, making him let go of said charm, and the charm went clanging to the ground below. The instant the charm hit the ground (it was still opened) the bright blue aura residing within flew back into Happy's throat.

Happy smiled happily as he pumped his paw triumphantly.

"Yes! Aye sir!"

But the air between Natsu and the Poacher of sound became tense and heavy.

The two men glared at each other.

Natsu and Lancer slowly circled each other, their eyes narrowed into tight daggers.

So sneering were those glares that they were looking increasingly like they could shoot laser beams from those darkening scowls. Their faces were tight as they frowned and they both continued to circle each other with their careful and graceful footsteps sounding heavy against the floor they stood on. They didn't speak a word until they finally stopped circling each other like vultures in the desert skies who circled their deceased prey but their scowls grew ever darker.

"I'll ask you once more. Give Lucy her voice back,"

Natsu, his eyes somewhat animalistic and his smirk twisted as he chuckled grimly under his breath and he snapped his fingers suddenly, confusing the Poacher of sound momentarily as he glared right back.

"What makes you think that I would give up your precious Lucy and her voice?" He asked, his eyes slowly becoming wild as he grit his teeth in a menacing way.

Natsu growled darkly, a demented look on his face.

"What do you even want Lucy's voice for anyway? If I ain't mistaken, her voice is going to vanish very soon unless it's put back into her anyway! What's the deal!?" He demanded.

Lancer sneered with a twisted and cruel smirk curling upon his lips.

He started to explain in a sadistic tone of voice.

"If I must justify myself then here it is: There were people more than willing to pay a handsome price in exchange for the voice belonging to the one and only Lucy Heartfillia, people who wish to understand how the powers of a Celestial wizard works and the like. But, alas, as you have just said, her voice won't remain stable for much longer. You ruined my plans when you ambushed me in that village so I decided to simply make sure the girl never speaks again. There can be no better revenge."

Natsu started to tremble with fury and anger.

That was what this was all about?

This guy was attempting to purposefully get rid of Lucy's voice!? If Lucy didn't have her voice back then it would be dreadful for her...! She wouldn't be able to contact her Celestial spirits anymore and they meant the world to her!

That would crush her and the mere thought made his heart quiver with pain.

He prepared a rage-filled retort but he never got to spit it out since someone had shouted out to him and he couldn't help but turn to face the person who shouted out. His eyes widened when he saw that everyone had finally caught up with Happy, Lucy and himself and his eyes focused on none other than Erza whom had requipped into her Flame Empress Armor.

The red-haired warrioress had seemed to prepare some fire in foresight and hardly hesitated in withdrawing her sword from its scabbard and then using it to swing the flames said sword had produced much like someone would swing a baseball bat.

"Natsu! Catch this!" She exclaimed before swinging the sword.

The flames came flying towards Natsu like a meteorite.

He caught the flames easily in one hand and wasted no time in bringing said flames to his mouth and chomped down on them. The second his ivory fangs latched on to the crackling flames, he sucked it all into his mouth and started to chew on them. He couldn't deny that that fire left quite a rich aftertaste in his mouth and it wasn't a taste that he particularly liked since he knew of much tastier fire he'd eaten.

It took a moment for him to swallow and he immediately felt overwhelmed by so much power.

The fire dragon slayer growled, his own glare darkening, his onyx eyes flashing jade green. His muscles bunched together, his breathing became rage-filled hisses of fury, his brows knitted together, his face became as hard as stone, his upper body practically combusted into flames on the spot, and he snarled from the very depths of his throat. Fire blew from his nose and, within an instant, the skin beneath his eyes, his forearms, his chest and his became covered in reddening scales. His lungs felt as though they were on fire.

Everyone knew what this meant.

Natsu had activated Dragon force.

A hint of a smirk swept across Natsu's face.

"I'm fired up now."

Everyone present watched in wide-eyed, slack-jawed awe as Natsu wasted no time in charging towards his foe like an angry bull charging at a matador. He was like a comet flying towards him with bright orange flames blazing behind him. The pinkette snarled and growled as he threw punch-after-punch repeatedly, his jade green eyes burning holes into the Poacher of sound's soul.

Fortunately, though, since the Poacher of sounds was preoccupied, it gave Gray an ample opportunity to make his move as he slid forth and tore the necklace containing Lucy's voice right off of the man's neck but the second he grabbed it, the charm dropped from his clasp and Lancer managed to momentarily look away from Natsu and made a move to snatch the charm back but he only managed to inadvertently kick it into the air to prevent dropping it to the ground and possibly breaking it.

That was when it all quickly descended into a game of keep-away.

"Juvia! Catch!" Gray chucked it to Juvia.

Juvia gasped as she watched the necklace come flying towards her.

She had to catch the necklace for Gray! No, for Lucy! But she didn't have much space to move to a spot that could keep the necklace safe so she needed to pass it on to someone else. Her heart jumped into her throat as she called on her water magic and she thrust her arm forwards, her hand glowing with blue magic power.

The water mage cried out "Water Nebula!" and a spurt of her water magic shot a geyser of water and deflected it so it was sent hurtling over towards Wendy.

The charm sailed through the air with a low whistle.

The sky dragon slayer ran forwards and caught it (albeit rather clumsily) out of the air before she ran a short distance and tossed it to Carla, whom was flying a short distance away from her. Her hazel brown eyes widened as she knew that her feline friend could hopefully grab it next, she raised her arm and lobbed it as hard as she could with her 13-year-old strength.

"Carla!" Wendy cried. "Your turn!"

The white exceed caught the charm necklace and was awed at the pulsating aura of Lucy's voice inside the necklace, until she recalled where she was, and then flew as fast as she could a short distance with a few more members of the guild running alongside her...but there were also some of Lancer's cronies gaining on her too in an attempt to retrieve the necklace.

Carla flapped her wings as hard as she could, subconsciously clutching the necklace containing Lucy's voice closer to her in a protective manner.

"E-Erza!" She exclaimed.

The charm flew out of her little cat paws and wound up being snatched right out of midair and being clutched (but not too hard) inside Erza's armoured grasp. She ran as fast as she could and then chucked it straight over to Mest who caught it in one hand.

Everyone in the guild passed the charm to one another, making sure to keep it as far away from the Poacher of sound as possible but they found it very hard to even make their way over to Lucy to give her the charm so she could reclaim her voice since Natsu and the sound-stealing wizard were fighting all over the place.

It was a miracle that Lucy hadn't even wound up getting more hurt from the brawling from those two!

But it all came to a head when someone caught the charm, panicked and then wound up throwing it off of the roof and everyone watched in horror as the charm containing Lucy's voice went sailing to the ground below. Happy, Carla nor Panther Lily wasted a single second before diving down to retrieve it before it could smash to the ground and Lucy's voice could possibly vanish for good.

Now all that was left to do was pray as Natsu battled the Poacher of sound.

What would happen?

Who would be victorious?


A/N: Heres the newest chapter, everyone and I hope you lot enjoy it. Sadly I'm in self isolation because of the Corona virus so that sucks. I hope it clears up soon but I sincerely hope the lot of you have enjoyed this chapter.

I made sure you lot have a battle to remember.

I hope you lot have a nice evening.

Don't forget to review and fave, everyone.

-Chloemcg