Lucy froze at the sight of Midnight standing at the foot of her bed, he had an eerie smile on his face as he stared down at her. His eyes ran up her body, lingering on her uncovered breasts and her shapely legs.
"Hey this isn't a free show." Lucy exclaimed as she pulled her blanket around her shoulders to cover herself from his greedy gaze, it made her insides churn uncomfortably at being looked at like that by someone who wasn't Cobra.
"What the hell are you doing in my house?" Reaching for her gate keys that she knew were on her bedside table, her fingers only grasped air.
Her brown eyes watched as a wisp of inky smoke consumed her keys and transferred them to Midnight's waiting hand. They hit his palm with a soft jingle as he held them away from her reach. Dangling them from one finger, Midnight tutted loudly.
"I said we have some things we need to discuss, you can't end this meeting so soon by calling on one of your little friends to come get rid of me. I just want to talk and once we are done, you may have your keys back."
'I could listen but I don't trust a word this guy says and I really don't care. I'll just have to bide my time until I can think of something. I only have one key that I took off to use earlier that I can reach but Plue's not going to be any help, unless...'
While maintaining eye contact with Midnight, she slipped her hand under her pillow until she felt the cool metal of a celestial key. Grasping it in her hand she sent a pulse of magic into it and silently summoned her only spirit, making sure that his gate opened on the far side of the room away from Midnight's gaze.
"Okay, I'm listening." Lucy huffed out, keeping his attention solely on her and away from the tiny ray of light suggesting that a spirit had been summoned. "What do you want Midnight? Spit it out because I've had quite a tiresome night and I really need my beauty sleep."
Her eyes glanced to where Plue had plodded out of his gate, the little spirit inhaled ready to start talking but looked around the room, sensed the atmosphere and settled for silently shaking in the corner, hiding from sight. Lucy did a tiny nod and hoped her little friend could help her. He was her only hope right now.
A laugh escaped Midnight's painted lips as he slowly descended onto the bed next the celestial mage, he placed his hand on top of hers causing her to cringe away and press herself as far away from the dark mage as she could, which wasn't far enough. Her bed just wasn't big enough.
"You are already such a perfect specimen." He licked his lips as his eyes turned almost predatory. "I could just eat you up."
'How could such a weedy looking man be so damn intimidating? I need to learn his tricks.'
"I'd rather you didn't." Lucy suppressed a shudder at the thought of Midnight touching her, he was creepy. She examined his face as she sat with her back against the wall, he looked like he'd been hit by a bus. "Are you alright? Don't get offended but you look like shit."
He frowned but his face soon softened when he remembered about the wounds that adorned his face. He ran his finger down the jagged cut running over his bottom lip, causing it to split open and let a fresh trail of blood trickle down his chin.
"It's a rough life love, a few scrapes are tricks of the trade. This is nothing so don't concern yourself with it. The people on the other end look much worse, trust me."
"That bastard tricked me." Gajeel roared as he stormed out of the club with Levy and Laxus in tow, a deep gash above his eye was restricting the iron slayers sight and the amount of alcohol he had consumed made it even harder for him to locate where he was going. "Who tricked you? What's going on?" Levy exclaimed loudly.
Gajeel was running his hands through his hair, trying and failing to calm his raging temper.
"After Kinana came over to tell us about Lucy, she left the club and then came back about twenty minutes later to ask where Lucy lived so she could go check on her and make sure she was okay after everything that had happened."
Gajeel punched his fist into a passing building causing a loud crunching sound, unsure if it was his fist or the building that made the sound, Laxus continued pulling the drunken dragon slayer along so he would carry on with his story.
"I told her where Lucy lived because I thought it was Kinana but as soon as I said Bunny's address she disappeared and I got slashed by a blade. It was that shithead Midnight from the Oracion Seis. He enchanted something to make it look like Kinana so I would tell him where Lucy lives then he cut me and made a run for it."
"That bastard I'll-" Laxus started but got interrupted by Gajeel.
"Don't worry, I'm going to kill him too. I got a hit on him before he left with my iron club so he shouldn't even be able to walk after that but he's a stubborn one. There's no way we can fail Lucy twice in one night, we need to get to strawberry street but I can't fucking see."
Angrily swiping at his wound, Gajeel only succeeded at causing more damage, his clumsy fingers ripping the wound open further.
"You idiot, stay still." Levy yanked off her lucky headband that she always wore and wrapped it securely around Gajeel's head, providing a tight hold, stopping the blood and successfully absorbing the flow so he could see again.
Looking down at his tiny girlfriend, he pressed his chapped lips against her now bare forehead and grunted his thanks.
"Come on, we don't have any time to lose, that fucker could be at Lucy's any minute now. Stop dicking around." Laxus shouted as he ran ahead of them, concern etched all over his face. 'Don't worry sis, I'm coming.'
"So basically, we need the power of an especially strong celestial mage to open somewhere for us. You don't need to know the specifics but you're the one we need. Being a Heartfilia means that your celestial magic is the strongest there is. I know of the power your ancestors possessed." His fingers were getting closer and closer to her.
"We could have used Angel but she doesn't practice that type of magic anymore after you beat her so badly and her magic was nothing compared to yours so there was a risk it wouldn't work and we didn't want that."
Lucy eyes followed Midnight's slim fingers as they tapped against her thigh, slowly travelling higher and higher. 'If he moves them one more time I'm going to break them, Mavis give me strength.'
"Why on earth would I help you? You're out of your mind if you think I'd ever do that. I've heard you out now would you gladly fuck off." Lucy gestured for him to leave but he ignored her.
"If you don't help, the council will bust Cobra for helping break the Oracion Seis mages out of prison." Midnight said bluntly. "But he didn't help you escape?" Lucy said, utterly confused.
A devious smile appeared on his face at her words, he placed his hand on her inner thigh and sighed "Oh my dear, he didn't need to, just being-"
Roaring in pain, Midnight yanked his hand away from the blonde's body and growled in anger. True to her word, Lucy had snapped his middle finger back with a sickening crunch.
"You aren't allowed to touch me you pig." Lucy shouted as she shot her fist forward to punch him in the face.
"Alright boss that's enough." A voice grumbled in Lucy's ear as she was restrained from behind, her arms being held painfully tight against her back. "We let you have your fun but she's a bit too feisty for you."
Midnight grunted as he popped his finger back into place and let out a dark chuckle "Yes and that is what will make this all so much more fun. Racer take her outside, we need to leave now. I think our little snake is almost here."
Hearing him say that Erik was nearby she screamed as loud as she could and accepted that she had lost this fight. Glancing back at the corner where Plue was she smiled at her little dog and closed her eyes. "Erik, you stupid fuck. Love you."
Then she was knocked out cold.
'Shit shit shit I'm too late.'
Cobra raced up Lucy's stairs but knew before he even made it to the top that she wasn't there. He had heard her shout for him. He'd failed.
The apartment was a state, Midnight had taken her and made a mess while he was at it. Walking fully into the room, Cobra was surrounded by Lucy's sweet smell and was almost brought to his knees at the overwhelming sadness that consumed him.
The main thing that caught Cobra's eye was that Lucy was now utterly helpless as he could see her keys were pinned to the wall of her apartment, held there by Midnight's dagger.
'Why does he need Lucy?'
A small clatter sounded behind some boxes in the corner of Lucy's bedroom made him groan loudly.
'What the fuck is it now'
Walking cautiously over to the source of the noise, Cobra pulled away the boxes and was stunned when he saw it was Lucy's smallest celestial spirit, he pounced onto Cobra's leg, pounding with all his might at the man's calf, not really causing any damage but trying his hardest as he shook in fear.
Cobra picked up the spirit and held him at arms length so he didn't get poked in the eye by his swinging limbs. Once Plue opened his eyes and saw who it was that was holding him he squeaked in happiness and stopped shaking. "Plue, what are you doing here? Did you see what happened to Lucy? Where is she?"
Plue nodded and started gesturing wildly. "Pun punn pun pun."
"Can you seriously understand that fucking thing?" A deep voice said from the doorway, spinning around ready to spew some poison, his lungs started to expand ready to attack but he held it back when he saw a beaten up Gajeel entering the room followed by Laxus and a winded Levy.
"Yeah, I actually can now. He said a strange man with black hair and a man with a big nose took her. It was Midnight, no doubt."
Placing Plue back on the floor, Cobra patted his head gently and attempted a weak smile "Thank you buddy you did great, I'll save her, I promise. Now go home and get some rest, I'll see you real soon." Plue nodded and disappeared.
"Let's fucking find Bunny already." Gajeel growled out as he cracked his knuckles and grinned "I'm ready to kick some dark mage scum."