AN: Hello everyone, here's the second installment of the my new fic! Hope you like it, I wanted to make it long because I had a specific ending in mind for this chap, but it was getting too long and I knew I needed to put this out.

I just changed some things, Alakitasia is the western continent of Earthland and Alvarez is a country there.


"Pops, why do you keep me and mom hidden? Aren't you proud of us?"

"Of course I am son, but in order for me to keep you two safe…I have to keep my enemies close."

"Ah!"

Emerald eyes shut tightly as the memory came over him, he could definitely say he hadn't understood what the old man meant until now. He had been young, and resented his father for the years he kept him hidden from the public. Hating the old man with every fiber of his being when his mother got tired of it all and left.

She had been beautiful—from the very little he remembered of her, he remembered that. She had long wavy hair unlike his and his father's short spikes. Amber irises held in her eyes but he of course inherited his father's green ones, his own uniquely varied with a hazel tint. And while his father had deep wine colored hair, she had the lightest shades of pink in her locks almost to the point it seemed white in the sun. They in turn had created his hair to be a salmon shade of pink that he couldn't help but feel irritated by as he grew older, it took too much away from his bad ass aura. He was honestly getting tired of guys laughing in his face before he blew their face off. It did lead to greater satisfaction though when their blood was splattered.

"Argh!" Another yell echoed out of the computer screen, this one a little more strained than the one proceeding it, as Natsu watched on with a blank stare.

Even after all these years he still remembered when she left.

It was around 8 in the evening when the commotion had started, his bed time if you asked the nanny, but being the spritely kid he was and hoarding never ending vestiges of energy like he did, it was normal for him to continue to play even after being tucked in. The mansion had been in chaos with the yelling's of the maids, a few guards, and his mother.

Natsu had snuck out of his room quietly to spectate, rounding the corners of the never ending, sparklingly pristine marbled floors—how his mother decorated them and demanded they be, to come into the sitting room where the shouting was the loudest.

"Get your hands off of me! I'm done with you people, and I'm done with your damn rules!"

Natsu hid himself deeper behind the corner of the entryway leading to the room, watching some maids speed past him as his mother continued to pull on her Luis Vuitton suitcases while slapping away the hands of some guards Natsu recognized.

"M-Ma'am, please!" A purple haired maid cried.

"No, shut up Olietta! I'm tired of being locked up in this house like a fucking caged animal." Pale pink tendrils of hair lilted down with sweat over a pale face stricken with annoyance and anger. Even at her worst, she still looked gorgeous, there was no question as to why his normally 'to himself' father married her.

"And don't think I didn't see you and these other whores coming onto my husband," She said gesturing to the other maids in similar uniforms around the room, each of their faces showing surprise and bewilderment at her statement, the likes of which couldn't cover the truth of her statement. She chuckled at them and their state of shock or shame spitefully, "I don't care…, you heifers can have him." With one last look over her shoulder she was off once more to pull her belongings out the door. Even the guards seemed unsure of what to do and let her go. The once chaotic room quieted down to just his mother's huffs and the scraping sound she was once petrified to hear on her precious floor.

Realization finally dawned on the young boy once he saw his mother wrench open the front door, kicking feelings of anxiety into action. She couldn't just leave! Not without him or his father.

Forgetting that he was supposed to be in bed and asleep, Natsu sprung out of his hiding place, just as she sprung a particularly hefty case out the door, "Mommy!"

He decided to ignore the angered look she threw at him as he raced to her, clutching at her skirt. "Why are you leaving without me and daddy, mommy?"

Just like the door, it felt like she pulled him off of her uncaringly, her long nails pushing into his shoulders painfully as she kept him at arms distance while she squatted to his height.

He cried out in pain, but quieted down once he noticed the usually kind smile on her face. His father said it reminded him of his own, just a lot sweeter looking and less toothy.

"Now hunny, I'm going to tell you this just this once. I'm sick of you and your father." Natsu trembled, his fists shaking as his brows scrunched together. She spoke those words that speared through his chest like ice cold spikes almost whimsically. Her voice was sickly sweet and her tone light, as if she were asking him about his day and not making him question her love.

"I-I don't understand, mo—"

"Shh," She placed a finger over his small lips, "how about I say it like this, for your wittle brain to understand," his mother cooed, "I loathe you. I never wanted you, I hate you." Here her voice stayed sweet, though there was an edge to it as her radiant amber eyes narrowed.

"H-Huh" Natsu hiccupped, he could feel snot trickle down his nose as his large eyes burned with unshed tears. This couldn't be his mother, she would never say this! She'd never been anything but kind before. His lips trembled with restrained sobs as her nails dug deeper.

"Your father forced you on me, I was happy with it just being the two of us. I didn't want the stretch marks or the pain, a baby crying at all hours of the night. Not like I dealt with it even then, when your father was absent the maids were useful." She stated matter-o-factly. "Do you know how long it took me to get back this body?!" She screeched, finally pushing him to the side and slightly cracking her sweet façade. The force of her push making him fall to the ground and sob harder as she stood tall. She huffed after finally gathering her wits and finishing her rant, "I tried to make myself love you, love this," She sighed raising her arms as a gesture to her home. "But you all just make me sick."

With that, Natsu could finally feel the burn of tears crawling down his reddened cheeks. Even as she watched her son's heart break she continued to smile as beautiful as ever before she pulled a strand of hair behind her ear and turned. Finally walking out the door and shutting it behind her. The door clicked softly with her unrushed movements, a drastic change from her earlier charge, but it still sounded like a gavel hitting hard against a podium to Natsu… a finality.

It all seemed so surreal.

Time ticked again on the hand of the grandfather clock, the silence in the air finally dissipating after a few minutes along with the heightened burning of his ears as he looked around, his breaths ragged as he started to hyperventilate, only to see the shocked and pitying faces of their help around him. The young boy finally remembering they were still there.

Jumping up from his seat on the floor, Natsu ran out of the room, distantly hearing a cry of his name from one of the maids. The pink haired boy didn't stop even as his lungs burned, until he wound through the long corridors of his home and finally burst through the mahogany door of his father's office. The young boy normally found the room warm and comforting, a place he spent most of his quality time with his father. Even when he was busy, Igneel would teach him all that he could at his young age, of business and the world it resided in, as the two sat together at his desk.

Tonight it felt cold and unfamiliar, his breaths straining and his heartbeat fast and almost irregular as he stared hopefully at his father, renewed warm tears flowing down his pudgy rouged face. "Daddy, mommy left! Please go get her!"

Someone cleared their throat at the side of his father and Natsu took a quick glance to his left to see Atlas Flame, his father's right hand man and one of his best friends. Natsu thought of him as an uncle and the man surly fit in with the father and son and their rambunctious nature and easy going attitudes. Even his hair kind of matched. He had vibrant red hair with an orange tint, while his eyes were black as night. Despite his intimidating appearance he was very kind and respectful to others. He was also the only one outside of the house that knew about him being Igneel's son. His loyalty was beyond that of friendship towards his father.

"Uncle Atlas, hurry, before she leaves for good!" Natsu yelled while coming a bit closer. He stopped once he finally grasped the somber look on their faces.

"Wha-wha-,"

"I'm sorry son." Igneel finally spoke, his face pitying just like everyone else's down stairs. Why did they pity him?!

"B-but, you can't s-she's your wife, m-my mother!" The small boy fell to the floor on his knees, everything he was hearing tonight was too much, too overwhelming. "Don't you love her?!"

"Natsu…" Atlas tried to console him but he just cried out louder and finally broke down.

"I-I-I, am I not g-good enough?" Large arms finally found themselves around his small frame in a strong hold. He could recognize that scent anywhere, his father.

"No!" Natsu stood and pushed away from his father's hold, turning away from the saddened look the man gave to him, "It's all your fault! I hate you!" He screamed, running out the room in a similar fashion that he came in.

Earlier that Day

Pops, why do you keep me and mom hidden? Aren't you proud of us?"

"Of course I am son, but in order for me to keep you two safe…I have to keep my enemies close…and to keep my enemies close, I have to make them feel safe."

Natsu's small eyebrows scrunched together adorably, "What does that mean?"

Igneel watched solemnly as his wife moved around the kitchen hurriedly through the window from his view in the yard with his son, she was obviously vexed as she spoke in hushed angry tones on the phone. She looked up suddenly finally seeing his eyes trained on her and balked. The woman smiled fictitiously once she directed her stunned gaze to their son, and quickly walked out the room. Natsu must have directed his attention to the woman when he did, but when he turned back to the young boy all he saw was confusion in its most innocent form.

"Only time will allow you to understand."


"Awh!" The male on the screen screamed again. Nothing on the anonymously sent clip—even his best hackers couldn't find the source from, besides the man siting and writhing in pain while shrouded in darkness.

That man being, his father.

Thirteen years later and here he was, twenty-one years of pent up anger, confusion, and insecurity, finally grasping reality after so many years.

Life was a bitch, a bitch that only the best could play.

Two minutes into the video of torture porn only the likes which he thought the horror movie franchise could perfect, a completely black screen came to the forefront. Ominous white text repeated the lines he knew by heart, 'What do you want?'

What did he want? How absurd. Here he was, forced to watch a video of his father being tortured by men unknown after being kidnapped after a business trip to the western continent, Alvarez of Alakitasia, in order to pull together clues to find him. And the video—people behind this…whatever the fuck, wanted to know what he wanted?

Just like time and time again, the pink haired man felt rage brew within him at the absurdity of it all. At the realization, at his father for getting himself caught, at himself for not being able to save him.

Tanned muscular arms shoved the manicured expensive wood of his father's desk over, forcing it to fall with its contents and all, including the twenty-five hundred dollar laptop left on a completely blank screen after the video finally ended.

"Fuck!" Expletives left the pink haired man's mouth in quick succession, his brows furrowed over his sharp jaded green eyes as he glared at anything and everything he could destroy.

They were so close to finding him, he just needed to keep hope. A feeling that was hard to find after watching that damned video about a million-fuckzilion times and still not picking out but one or two clues. His father was sitting in a normal flip out chair, yet still sturdy enough to keep him from toppling over from his bursts of pain. The likes of which were coming from an electrical-shock type machine. The way of torture perfect in keeping any suspicious individuals from showing on screen. No one was shown besides his father, no one was heard besides his father.

The fact that they figured out what they did was amazing in itself. Based off the fact the only source of light was coming from a stage light like object, shining directly on the lone man on the screen, Natsu was able to gather that he was underground somewhere. There were no windows, and the darkness surrounding his old man was complete. The flooring Igneel was sitting over was cement, its grainy dark appearance held splatters of blood here and there among other things Natsu didn't want to think about, lead him to believe that it was a basement or an abandoned area left unkempt. The lighting let Natsu get a good look at his father, despite the pang in his heart of seeing his old man beaten down, he was able to come to a conclusion of his state.

Igneel's normally burgundy healthy hair with sprinkles of attractive gray that he wasn't ashamed of showing, seemed grayer than usual, dusted with dirt and oil, shagging a bit and splayed around his head rather than how it was usually pulled back, the spikes from his younger days falling looser, either from the weight of his longer hair or his age. His normally tanned skin like Natsu's own, was now unhealthily ashen, and his forest green eyes lacked their radiance and kindness. He seemed unconscious mentally, not glazed, but gone despite shock flashing through them every time pain shot through him. Purple tones showed under his eyes and along his forehead, dried blood stained his skin, but a fresh light red stained his lips growing more obvious after every shock and staining his long rough beard.

The clothes he wore were rags, not the one he wore to the airport, nor the type he would pack to the trip, that fact that they weren't his showed even more in the fact that they were baggy on his frame. Natsu could tell that his skin sagged a bit and despite the fact that Natsu knew his father trained his body just as much as he himself did, the muscles of his father's in the video seemed like they slimed.

It was perplexing at first, his father was only supposed to be missing for a few weeks tops, a week in a half for how long he'd officially known he was missing and when the video was sent, not enough time for his father to deteriorate in such a way. He'd realized they'd taken him at the beginning of his trip. Tricked everyone into believing his father was in Alvarez when a video conference of his father there popped up on the news, along with the normal spending in the account whenever his father left. It was suspicious that they hadn't heard anything directly back from his father or the entourage of guards, representatives, a secretary, intern, and personal help that went along with him.

That had been a month ago.

Natsu had ordered henchmen to check the flight, rental, and hotel records. Instead of taking their own company owned private plane, his father had decided to go business class, wanting to seem humble in front of the people of Alvarez, rumor had it that they thought poorly of the people in Fiore.

He'd quickly learned that his father hadn't made it to the hotel there, even better he hadn't made it on the plane…

And as the video showed, everyone else with him hadn't made it even to where he was now.

Natsu huffed, pulling at the collar of his scarf. It was made of cream colored snake skin, so soft it made silk feel rough, stitched and woven perfectly from what he'd heard. It had used to be his father's, the only thing valuable he'd owned before he'd worked hard to build his business on his own. It had been passed down from his father, and his father's father. Once Natsu was born it was passed down and it never left his clutches for long.

He looked around finally gathering himself as he analyzed all that he'd destroyed at the mercy of his anger.

Let's just say Igneel wouldn't have been too happy with him if he saw. The room that once held sweet memories of familial bonding between man and son, the area once emitting a warmness that helped through even the worst night of nightmares had become unfamiliar with him before these couple months that he visited. The room wasn't cold, nowhere near it, but the first time he stepped a foot in the room after six years he felt an undeniable ache. Nostalgia and regret had corned him, crying for the years he'd missed with his father.

Natsu sighed, rolling up the sleeves of his fitting v neck black shirt to his elbows and got to work picking things up starting with his father's prized desk, an object the man loved to brag he made on his own like most of the things in his office. The bookshelves, coffee table, lamp stand, a couple indiscriminate chairs, even some paper weights, among other things. Natsu chuckled at a particular paper weight as he picked it up off the floor to place on the up righted desk, thankfully unbruised or scratched. It was in the design of a dragon, and Natsu could remember clearly the day his father sat widling it.

"Dad why are you always making stuff?" A young Natsu sat cross legged from his father in the yard where the older man liked to spend most of his down time, which unfortunately wasn't very much. Their yard wasn't that much of a yard, more like a forest since the estate resided over at least 60 acres, not a house could be seen in the distance and that's how his father liked it, his mother…not so much. She didn't like a lot of things about their living situation, the fact that they lived outside of the city being one since she had grown up in one and was a city-girl at heart. His father had grown the same way, but thrived on the outdoors, finding peace whenever he was away from the worries of civilization. Igneel had agreed to allow his mother reign over anything she wanted in the house, but he got to decide on what he wanted for the outside, simply put, no elaborate garden for her.

Igneel continued what he was doing, his dexterous fingers not losing their speed or finesse, only a quirk on the side of his lips to show he was listening. "I mean, mom always says what you do is ridiculous, that you could just buy it instead." Natsu finished sheepishly, scratching the back of his head after hearing how silly he sounded and remembering how his mother went on and on about how his father was becoming one of the richest men in the world.

In all honesty the young boy thought it was cool, he'd almost always venture out with his father to watch him build, the older man sometimes allowing him to help or build his own, but he couldn't help but think it was wrong since his mother's nose always upturned at it.

"Well Natsu," Igneel started, finally finishing the latest object of his attentions. The pale wood shinned in the light peeking through the trees despite polish and lacquer not yet being painted over it. Its small size barely half the size of his father's palm yet still held intricate details that Natsu knew what it was off the bat. 'A Dragon!' the boy had squealed, putting a proud, slightly self-satisfied smile on his father's sun kissed face as he patted his son's head lovingly. "You've gotta learn to make things for yourself, because other's won't always be around." Igneel had rubbed his head even harder at the look of awe on his young son's round face. Not being able to take the warm heavy feeling in his chest any longer from the face that reminded him too much of his own, the man pulled his son into a headlock that had the boy yelling out in furry as it turned into one of their usual wrestling matches and he couldn't help but laugh out loud.


Tanned calloused hands balled into fists on the edge on the crookedly placed desk, still missing key items as they laid on the floor. One fist holding tightly to said paperweight that was the cause of old memories. Its surface now colored in hues of red, brown and black, shining brightly thanks to its films of lacquer even after all these years. If he'd upturn the object he would see the words, 'For Natsu,' in his father's famous scrawl.

Broad shoulders shook as a pink head of hair bowed, moments passed before the male finally controlled himself, "Don't worry old man, I'll find you."

"Boss, I think we have a lead on something!"

Natsu let go of the paperweight as the door was slammed open, moving his body to a stand with slow calculated ease that put his visitor on edge as he heard the news thrown at him.

Jackal, a man he had under his wing as one of his henchmen, quickly straightened up and gave his boss one of his usual smirks once he noticed the man turn his head to the side to show he was listening. His gold eyes glowed dangerously, "They sent another video."

Natsu felt a chill down his spine and his jaw tensed.

"This time they sent it to the main networks, did you get something up here?"

Natsu's cerulean eyes blinked at the still toppled over laptop, its screen still blank, before answering, "No, show me."

Jackal came into view from the shadows of the door showing a laptop of his own in his hold. Noise permeated from the halls making Natsu fully aware of the open door and how distant he had been from reality, holed up in his father's study for what felt like hours, rewatching over and over his video.

Jackal was not much older or younger than Natsu, standing at about the same height yet lankier build. The blonde haired man, held equally as yellow eyes that always danced as if he were up to no good as his hair, and a permanently sinister smirk. He wasn't all bad though, their top IT, research and intelligence expert, Lamy, often referred to his cat-like features as cute.

He strolled into the room lazily, but Natsu could tell it was more rushed than usual most likely not to test his boss' ire thanks to the state of his father's favorite room in the house. Natsu hardly ever let anyone in, and to see it destroyed by his own hands no doubt would put his men on their toes around him.

Once he was a few steps behind him, the man wasn't quiet dumb enough to think he could stand next to the temperamental man, Jackal swiftly pulled the PC from under his arm and flicked open the screen. His quick fingers got the computer to boot and clicked open to the preferred screen, all of this done within the minute, his boss wasn't one to wait.

Natsu finally turned fully to the casually dressed man, a spotted scarf wrapped similarly to his own over a crudely worded muscle top and baggy military-esque cargo shorts, to see him finishing up pulling up the video. "Has anyone else seen this yet?"

Jackal grinned almost crazily, "Now boss you don't think I'd do that would ya? You're the first one to see this after Lamy kicked me out the room to find you."

Feeling impatient, Natsu crossed his arms and widened his stance authoritatively, "Well start it up then!" The pink haired man growled.

If Jackal hadn't known his boss wasn't in the mood he would've teased him for his impatience. He knew if he pulled that shit today his ass would be singed and left to float down one of Magnolia's dirty rivers, so he only allowed a "Tsk," to escape his teeth. That garnished him a searing enough of a glare to last the rest of the day. He took a step back as Natsu stood on his haunches, and quickly pushed the play button to distract the man from beating him an inch from his life, just for lack of respect. He could think of better things to die for, heh.


AN: So what do you guys think? Sorry about the cliffhanger I had to leave it off somewhere. Next chapter, you find out what's in the new video, more Lucy, and guess what? Time skips!

Catch ya on the flip side!