Warning: there is unstable/psychotic behavior, descriptions of violence, and brief handling of guns in this chapter. There's a small scene that could be triggering for sexual trauma, but like I mentioned in a previous chapter there is no sexual assault or references to assault of this nature.
Frank slipped into the room that acted as Lucy's cage. The man who closed the door behind her kidnapper was not the blue haired undercover cop. She wondered where Jellal was, and if his absence was a good or bad sign.
The closer Frank got to the bed she sat on, the more nervous she became. She wished she'd been standing when he came in, not resting some place as intimate as the bed. The man was delusional enough as it was, the last thing she wanted was to give him the wrong idea.
Before Frank reached her, she had slid off the bed with a fake smile in greeting. He took hold of her right hand and brought it up to his lips to place a delicate kiss to the back of her hand. He misinterpreted the cringe of disgust that shuddered through her body at the caress for lust.
Thank goodness this lunatic is so full of himself, she thought with an internal eye roll. Frank didn't release her hand as he guided her to sit on the edge of the bed with him. If there was any other furniture in the room, she would have offered to change location, but the only other option would be the floor.
Lucy needed to be smart. Declining to sit with him would only aggravate him. The man was a ticking time bomb; the littlest offense could result in a big explosion. She waited for him to sit down and when she jumped up on the bed next to him, she put a safe distance between the two of them.
If Frank noticed the gap between them, he didn't care. Letting out a dramatic sigh, he said, "You're soon to be husband is a very valuable man, my dear Lucy. The work just never stops."
Soon to be dead man, Lucy corrected in her head. The only man she wanted as her husband was Natsu.
She lost count how many times Frank referred to himself as important since she woke up. If he didn't feel the need to constantly remind her that he was a man, like she couldn't get there on her own, she would have believed his cocky persona. When in reality, Frank was a man whose superiority complex was a front to mask how inferior he felt. He probably even had himself convinced.
If he hadn't kidnapped her, or threatened her boyfriend, she might have felt sorry for Frank. She saw how hard he fought for his older brother's approval back in high school. The man lost himself trying to please his family. They broke him.
"Because of my important role in the company, people will try to steal you away from me since you're my one and only weakness," he started, "I need to keep you safe, so I'm having you stay here in our room to protect you. Your confinement is not a punishment."
The way he stared at her with nothing but love in his eyes told her that he truly believed his own deceptions. She may have pity for the broken man before, but she wasn't naive enough to trust that she was safe there with him.
He was deranged. He was showing her the calm side of his personality for now, but it was only a matter of time before his violent side came back out to wrack havoc. She needed to connive her way out of this. "A strong, important man like yourself needs a strong woman like me. If you grant me permission to freely roam your estate, I can prove that I am more than capable of handling any problem."
It was clear that flattery, no matter how false, would be a useful tactic in her escape. The man placed himself on such a high pedestal that he wouldn't see the deception in her words. As expected, Frank was elated over her praise, but shook his head vehemently.
"No, no, no, no, noooo," he sang, still shaking his head, like he was stuck on buffering.
Lucy worked to keep a neutral face at his display. If she didn't pay attention to his lapses of insanity, she hoped they would pass without trouble. He suddenly stopped the repetitive movement then stared at her so intently she started to sweat.
"You are going to stay right here where you are safe," he told her with a playful tap to the tip of her nose that made her flinch.
She tried her luck once again. "Please? I'd love to see your homes beautiful architecture."
"It's our home," he snapped.
She could see his patience faltering, but she couldn't stop herself from pushing the matter. If only she could get out of this room, she'd be able to escape. "Of course. I just want to see where I will be spending my days with you," she implored as earnestly as she could.
Evidently, she pushed him too far. She watched as his sanity shattered. All rational judgment left his character and Lucy knew she was in trouble.
"Do you doubt my method of keeping you safe? Do you not trust me? Did you trust him to keep you safe?"
Frank became angrier and angrier with each passing question. His face turned red with heat, and he started obsessively licking his lips. It was vulgar. His hands flew into his hair, and as he fisted his dark curly hair into his grasp he pulled on the locks.
The man was completely losing it.
"I SAVED YOU FROM THAT MONSTER!" Frank finally screamed, spit spewing from his mouth from rage.
Lucy held her breath, trying to remain as still as possible while he continued his meltdown. With every insult he yanked on his hair. She found relief that he was harming himself and not her, but it was a disturbing sight to witness.
"He was going to corrupt you—" yank "—defile you," yank "—and eventually toss you aside like trash," yank "—because he never actually cared for you. He was just using you for your money, for your status in society. You meant nothing to him. Nothing!"
By the time he was through, Frank was breathing heavy from the exertion of yelling and the pain he was inflicting upon himself. His crazed eyes found Lucy's. The shock of what unfolded before her was the only thing keeping her from fleeing the bed.
He titled his head to the side in thought before landing on one. "You should be showering me with your gratitude right now for saving you from such a fate," he snarled at her in unrighteous indignation.
Logically, she understood that Frank's insults shouldn't have any impact on her. He was, without a doubt, in the middle of a mental breakdown. But hearing him slander Natsu's character like that, her Natsu, had her seeing red.
"He'd never use me," Lucy sneered back.
The crazed look in his eyes transformed to absolute evil. "What did you just say to me?"
"Natsu would never use me. He's not that type of man," she refuted, the challenge in her voice was clear, if not stupid. Provoking him was not the correct choice in this moment, but her need to defend Natsu clouded her survival instincts. If she made it out of there alive, Natsu may kill her himself for her stupidity and lack of self-preservation.
Frank launched himself across the bed. As he landed on top of her, he pushed her body down to lay on her back. Lucy fought to stay upright. He wasn't a large man, but he still overpowered her. He hovered over her body, pinning her wrists down with his hands.
"Man?!" Frank bit the word into her face. His teeth snapped viciously, spittle misting her face, causing her to cringe further into the bed. Her hands fought against his hold, wanting nothing more than to wipe her face clean. "He is nothing but scum. The lowest of the low. I am the only man you need!"
Lucy wouldn't consider herself a violent person. She believed most matters could be settled through discussion, but her mind was made up the second Frank put his hands on her. She was going to fight back. He had her arms pinned down, but the fool didn't know to secure her legs too.
"You're not a man. You are nothing but a weak, pathetic coward!" she growled through clenched teeth.
With as much power as she could muster, Lucy drilled her knee up into his groin. He squealed upon impact. Lucy didn't waste any time. She pushed Frank off her and he went tumbling off the bed. He was wheezing and rolling on the ground in agony from the pain.
Lucy scrambled off the bed and banged on the door so hard her fists throbbed.
"JELLAL!"
No response.
"Jellal, please! Open the door, please!"
The pained noises behind her were becoming less fervent. She looked over her shoulder to find Frank crawling across the floor to the bathroom. She didn't have much more time. She kicked the wood of the door in a final attempt to get anybody's attention.
Nothing. Nobody was coming for her.
She was just going to have to summon her inner badass and try to take Frank out herself. If she was going down, she'd go down fighting. With renewed determination, fueled by adrenaline, she rounded back on Frank.
He pulled himself up to stand in the bathroom. He stood silently, staring at his reflection in the mirror when he began to laugh. It started out soft and quickly escalated into full blown hysterics. In between fits of laughter, she heard him say, "You little bitch."
The laughter ceased as quickly as it began. He rotated his head towards her. Only his head. The rest of his body remained still. There was something so unnatural about the movement it gave her the chills. With total nonchalance, as if he was greeting her good morning, he told her, "That mistake is going to cost you your life."
Then Frank smashed the mirror with his fist. Shards of glass shattered all around him in varying sizes and shapes. He sorted through the glass like somebody would pick through fruit at the grocery store, searching for the perfect one. He settled on one that was sickle in shape. It sliced his hand as he gripped it, but he was too far gone in his madness that he didn't notice.
"If I can't have you, then nobody will."
Jude Heartfilia was exactly what Natsu expected.
He was an arrogant man who looked down on Natsu for not having enough commas in his bank account. Even the older man's mustache was haughty. The short bristles seemingly mocked him as Lucy's father silently stared Natsu down from his spot across the limousine.
Jude picked everybody up from the hospital in a limo. A limo-fucking-sine. It disgusted Natsu. He heard his daughter was taken and he couldn't find the energy to drive himself to go rescue her.
Lucy's father was nothing like Igneel. It broke Natsu's heart that this was the man Lucy called father. If only Igneel were still alive, he would have treated her like his own. Then she could feel the warmth of a real father. Jude was cold and detached, almost as if he was bored, like his daughter's abduction was mindless chit chat.
Laxus and Mirajane described what happened once more to Jude when they all piled in the limo; Natsu and his group included. The hospital staff wasn't pleased that the two of them left before they were discharged, but nobody could convince them to stay while the rest of them went off to save Lucy.
The couple breezed over the fake engagement. Natsu didn't miss the inferno raging in Jude's eyes over being deceived. Nobody mentioned his relationship with Lucy to Jude, but by the way her father kept staring at Natsu, he must have pieced everything together. The menacing aura surrounding Natsu was beyond the anger that a simple friend would be experiencing over Lucy in trouble.
"You make me sick," Natsu spat, glaring right at Jude. Natsu's lip curled in a snarl. The strategic planning the group had delved into silenced as Natsu spoke. "Your own daughter is kidnapped. Gone. We have no clue where she is, or what's happening to her, and you are acting like were discussing how the sky is blue."
Her father's reaction to Natsu's attack was minuscule. The only indication Jude heard Natsu was the slight arch in one eyebrow, otherwise he remained calm. It enraged Natsu even more.
"I am a businessman first and foremost, even before I am a father," Jude spoke for the first time since they entered the limo. "When a business deal goes bad, I remain calm. When the company's stock dips, I remain calm. That is what a CEO of my magnitude does: remain calm in difficult situations. It is how the company pulls through, and it is how we will pull through this, young man."
Natsu's snarl intensified at the insult but let Jude finish speaking without interruption.
"I am not the father that Lucy deserves." No fucking shit, Natsu growled to himself. "I never deserved her mother, and I certainly don't deserve Lucy. But I am her father, and I will not let a random boy criticize how I am handling the abduction of my one and only child. I will take care of this and when she is safe, she will be coming home," Jude finished.
"Like hell she is! You will have to kill me before I let ya take her away!"
If Jude was ignorant towards Natsu's relationship with his daughter before, there was no denying it after that. The crease between Jude's brows was the most reaction he'd given the whole car ride. "Nonsense. You don't have the means to take care of her," Jude scoffed.
Natsu was unable to hold back any longer. Jumping to Lucy's defense since she wasn't here to tell her father off herself, he snapped, "And who are you to say what she needs? Or how I plan to support her? I'm going to spend the rest of my life making sure she wakes up and goes to bed everyday knowing how loved she is. She will never doubt that she's the center of my damn world, that she is my everything."
Natsu carried on while Jude remained stoic, listening. "Say what ya want, but I do have the means to support her. Support being the key fuckin' word here. I won't just take care of her like Lucy's some possession. We may not be rich, but I'll support her with my love and affection; with my devotion and understanding."
"And that, sir, is what I think Lucy would say if she was here because I refuse to speak for her," he added. "So, yes, I will be the one to be there for her if that's what Lucy wants, and there is not a single fuckin' thing you or anybody else can say to convince me otherwise."
Both Laxus and Mirajane gaped at Natsu in horror. Nobody spoke to Jude Heartfilia in such a tone without major repercussions. When a small smile formed on Jude's face, Lucy's childhood friends almost fell out of their seats.
"I haven't been spoken to like that since Lucy's mother was alive," Jude chuckled softly. "Albeit with less cursing."
Natsu had plenty more to say to her father, but felt he said enough. His objective was to defend Lucy, and he had.
Jude sighed heavily, suddenly appearing 20 years older. He slumped back in his seat and eyed the pink haired man that loved his daughter. "Do I have your word that you'll uphold everything you've told me today?"
"Yes," Natsu's response was said with such intensity and sincerity it made Jude chuckle again, which had Laxus and Mirajane entirely wigged out.
"Then I believe it's up to Lucy what happens from here. I will not stand in your way," Jude declared. "But don't come crying to me if she decides that the life you just described isn't enough."
Natsu nodded his agreement. If that's what Lucy decided, then so be it. Whether she wanted to resume their romantic relationship or not, Natsu would always be there to support her. His love for her was unconditional.
His younger self would call him a sappy jackass for thinking like that. That version of Natsu reserved sentiment such as that for his friends and family. He never got attached to the girls he slept with, but Lucy wasn't just some girl. She was Lucy. His Lucy. He would stop at nothing to make her happy.
And he would do everything in his power to see that she got home safely.
"Ya sure we're headin' to the right place?" Natsu asked, struggling to see the early morning landscape through the heavily tinted windows of the limo.
It was 6 am. It'd been 12 hours now since Natsu and his siblings left his house in pursuit for the location Lucy sent to his phone in a plea for help. Anything could happen in 12 hours and Natsu's panic was reaching unbearable levels.
"Positive. I've got my best people on it," Jude reassured him, "Chief Lahar will be reprimanded for his foolish decision to keep this from me."
Natsu almost felt bad for the Chief of Police. He was just doing his job. But Lahar was also the one who refused to tell him where Lucy was, so almost feeling bad wasn't enough to make him care about whatever punishment was in store for him.
"Do we get to kick some mafia ass too or are we gunna be forced to the sidelines? Because I've been itching for a good fight and these low lives will do the trick," Gajeel demanded, cracking his knuckles with a savage grin.
Natsu hadn't thought to ask. Nothing was going to stop him from storming into wherever she was being held to save Lucy.
"Virgo will get you set up with what you need," was all Jude said.
Virgo turned out to be a tiny pink haired woman dressed in an all-black combat outfit, paired with black combat boots and tactical hat. She met them in front of a lavish gated community with several SWAT officers. Natsu assumed more waited in the three armored vehicles, ready to head into the fray.
"Oh good, friends of the princess have finally arrived!"
Virgo was strange. She spoke in a monotone voice that somehow still conveyed her excitement. After digging around in one of the armored vehicles the tiny woman emerged with four bulletproof vests and various weapons.
Natsu, Gajeel, Gray, and Erza all gawked at Virgo in disbelief as she organized the supplies to distribute among them. Because Mirajane and Laxus were still in rough shape they decided they'd only get in the way and stayed behind in the limo with Jude. Natsu was dying to ask Lucy's friends what the deal with Virgo was. It seemed as if this tiny powerhouse was running the show here.
"Here," Virgo handed Gajeel a vest and a Glock 19M, which he gladly accepted with out question.
Nobody in his company was a stranger with firearms. With expert competence Gajeel made quick work of opening the action to examine the chamber for ammunition while Virgo moved onto Natsu's siblings.
If Lahar were to be here, he'd have an absolute conniption fit over mere civilians being handed police force weapons and given the okay to join the fight. Money overrode the chain of command he supposed, and Natsu wasn't about to question their unexpected luck.
"Heartfilia company is not liable if anybody shoots or harms themselves. Proceed with caution," Virgo rattled off.
She told them to proceed with caution while handing Natsu a M4 rifle and it was so ridiculous that he couldn't refrain the wide feral smile spread across his face. He liked this strange little lady.
"Let's go save the princess."
A/N: Natsu and Virgo are gunna raise hell next chapter. And I'm so sorry for how long this update took! I had a serious case of writer's block, and also, this was just a really difficult chapter to write.
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