AN: Hey everybody! Long time no see! Haha, thanks for sticking in there, I have a long explanation for the long wait at the end so stay tuned.

Anyway, hope you enjoy this chapter, be prepared, it's a bit of a doozy.


"Hello, Lucy."

There standing in front of the camera was Acnologia, his sharp grin taking up the expanse of his face as he stared into the lens.

Behind him was none other than Jude Heartfilia.

"Darling, darling, Lucy." Acnologia began, directing his words towards his audience with arms gliding open and a face that morphed into a picture of agonized sympathy, "It pains me to be the one to tell you this." He intoned, a sigh falling after his words as he closed his eyes and feigned remorse, finally gesturing to the man behind him. There in plain sight, for all to see, was none other than

Jude Heartfilia.

The head of the Heartfilia household and Chief Executive to the Heartfilia Corporation, Jude Heartfilia.

Contrary to the state one would believe the man to be in, Jude looked like his normal imposing self. Not a hair was out of place; his suit was pristine, and even his notorious scowl was immutable. Nothing about him seemed displaced outside of the circumstances. The only thing–which granted, was the most glaringly odd thing, that was alarming was the fact that Jude was there sitting at a bare desk with his hands folded while Acnologia was standing next to him beckoning towards the camera.

The room they were in was indistinguishable. There was only one lamp overhanging the men and the only things it lit into view were themselves and the desk, anything else beyond them was pitch black. Its brilliant focus was akin to a stage light, shining down on the actors as they prepared for their scene. The only noteworthy thing about their location was that the floor was wooden instead of being the same dirty cement reminiscent of Igneel's last location.

Natsu took this all in with a calculated gaze, even as his heartbeat rose to a fever pitch. His limbs felt numb and his hands clammy, but he continued on his calm facade with a dead-eyed stare. Inside, his emotions swarmed around complicated and contrasting, going left then right and pulling his subconscious down lower and lower until he disconnected from reality. He couldn't understand how Jude could look so put together and healthy while his father had been left in shambles. Left wondering how the man could look so content next to the serpent-like creature that had wrapped his body around his father's neck in the form of a noose. How could he be so calm and not consider the very apparent future of him being in that noose next?

Anger built up in Natsu like a blazing inferno, his indignance knowing no bounds. It all culminated until a flash of Lucy's face in his mind slowly absolved it. Natsu lowered his head slightly. His eyes stayed fixed on the screen but his thoughts wavered. There was no point thinking about the unfairness of his father's death. He cared about Lucy and didn't want her to go through what he did. That much was obvious. So that meant he should be relieved that Jude was fine. He would have more of a fighting chance than Igneel ever did, hell, he may even be alive after the end of the video. This should comfort him, right? Still, he couldn't help but feel aggrieved. Natsu's brain continued to war with him even as Acnologia started speaking once more.

"Jude and I have decided to switch everything, the business, the funds, all of the assets, everything...over to me."

A gasp filled the room with curses and indignant yells following suit, but Natsu undeterred focused completely on what Acnologia said next.

"Wait, I know what you're thinking, and don't be upset. You may not believe it, but this is all for you dear." Acnologia smiled toothily at the camera. "We all know you wouldn't have been able to handle it. You should be thanking me, really.

Honestly, Lucy, I can't have a sniffling little brat who's been doing who knows what with who knows who, taking over my company. I need someone I can trust." The ebony-haired man stated, not even a twitch upon his face as he chuckled, his teeth bright against the fluorescent light. "And who better can I trust than myself?"

"I know what I did was cruel, selling you off to the highest bidder and what not…your father was very upset when he found out his little girl wasn't so innocent anymore. I mean, I can imagine, being told that your pride and joy was getting bent over by older men, some of whom could be old business partners…" Jude noticeably tensed in the chair behind him, but the raven-haired man kept going, "With all that being said, if you really want to come back and enjoy some of this wealth, I would allow it. That is if you joined as one of my playthings instead." Acnologia chuckled, 'playthings' of course referenced the girls he made into consorts he used for sex trafficking. "I promise I'll treat you real nice." At the thought of Lucy joining his ranks his chuckle turned into a cackle until finally, he was roaring with laughter.

.oOo.

Until this point, Lucy had been watching the video play in front of her with a deadly stillness. She had been shocked to not only find her father on screen during Natsu's meeting but was also almost sent into despair when she saw that her only living relative was with the man that had violently kidnapped her and sold her to the black market. The level of betrayal she felt that rushed through her at the sight of the pair almost floored the girl. She thought back to the time she truly thought her father had a hand in the incident and felt revulsion at the gleaming evidence that it really could've been true. To think that she had convinced herself he was innocent.

Better yet, to think that she gave up her own innocence to protect him.

Rivulets of tears she hadn't realized were balanced along her reddened ducts, burned trails down her face.

He was a monster.

Her own father...sold her and threw away his only flesh and blood like trash.

She heard nothing but a buzzing growing louder in her ear the longer she watched Acnologia's slimy mouth move. Her limbs felt numb and she questioned how her legs were able to hold her up as long as they did. She slowly felt nothing as she watched Acnologia walk towards her father who looked on sternly to whatever the man was saying. That was until the Heartfilia patriarch shook hands with the notorious gang leader and with a twitch of the blonde man's lips–of which Lucy knew was the closest thing Jude would ever come close to as a smile, took an offered pen in hand.

Lucy knew she was dissociating further when she could barely even feel her own breath. Her mind barely even took in vital words like 'Will' and 'Sign over'. She watched in a daze, vision blurred by her tears as the man she had forgiven over and over because of her misguided loyalty and love, signed the paper on the dotted line.

That was it.

She didn't blink, gaze hardened and devoid of life as she watched her father sign off his significance to her. Memories of a time before, when her mother was alive and they were a happy family, when her father showered her with love and affection, flashed before her eyes only to then be erased in her subconscious. Him spinning her around in the garden as her mother laughed joyfully, him soothing her after a terrible nightmare with a story, his proud pat on her head when she achieved top scores in her kindergarten class, the time he recanted to her that her first words when she was a baby were 'dada' and they giggled as her mother, also amused, spread icing on her famous strawberry shortcake, and lastly, although not as heartfelt as the others but more recent, the day she graduated high school with all honors and he looked at her with the most pride she'd seen in years. A stern nod of his head and a brisk 'congratulations' was all the acknowledgment she got but it was enough to warm Lucy's heart and give her the validation she needed at the time. All of it, iced over once the ballpoint pen in her father's grasp came to a resolute stop.

She decided then and there, that he was dead to her.

"I am so sorry Lucy," Jude said as his final words to the memory of his loving daughter. She had grown through the years with resilience and courage despite the mental torment he put her through after his wife died. He had lost his way when Layla passed, and the resemblance that Lucy held with his late wife pained him until he lost focus on what was right and lost the ability to share a bond with his daughter.

He knew that after this unforgivable action, she wasn't going to ever come back to him as his little girl. He knew that he had solidified his new position in her life. Despite that, he hoped his expression read well. His eyes were sorrowful and held the depth of his intentions. All he ever wanted to do was protect her. That was it, he never meant to hurt her–.

POP!

.

.

.

The room started spinning, the ceiling dropped and the walls caved in. Everything devolved into a black point and then grew back to full size with pristine clarity. It felt like the air was completely sucked out of her chest cavity. Lucy felt everything at once and yet nothing at all as her stomach threatened to remove itself from her body after she watched her father's head get blown apart once a bullet entered his skull.

Before she knew it, she was collapsing and her vision was turning gray.


.oOo.


Natsu was stunned to silence as was everyone else who watched the video play out with rapt attention. Almost nothing went to plan in the video like Gray, Jellal and he thought. Jude wasn't supposed to go along with the change of will, he was supposed to be handcuffed, close to death, and forced to forge his own signature during his last moments. Natsu could only growl as an overwhelming sense of contempt and anger towards the man flooded through him at the thought of what Lucy would feel if she saw this.

He remembered her sorrowful words as she spoke about her father and how he actually felt about her, how she lamented her fears of him being behind everything and he crassly told her to forget about him not realizing how horrible the confrontation would be if her fears were to ring true. He had felt for her at that moment when they were up in her mother's tree and she begged to be understood not just for the person she was inside but for her complicated feelings towards her family. At the time, Natsu was the closest thing to understanding and yet now, even he felt pity towards her as her father signed away her life towards her kidnapper.

Natsu shook off his feelings of pity as his face became hard and resolute. He barely heard the shameful attempt her father made at an apology towards his daughter.

The last thing Lucy needed was his pity, she needed his strength. It was at that moment Natsu vowed to never betray Lucy the way her father did. He would protect her, and never let him or Acnologia ever hurt her again. That was what he thought at least until he saw before anyone else the glare of a gun, its silver shone a piercing brightness against the sharp light. He watched, green eyes widening along with the gun as it raised towards Lucy's father.

Natsu stood, acting before his thoughts caught up to the realization, but there was nothing he could do at that moment to save the man. The last sight on Jude's face, owner of one of the largest conglomerates in all of Fiore, widowed husband, and father to Lucy Heartfilia, was a wistful smile. His aged and harrowed eyes read more than Natsu could ever describe, and for a second a memory flashed of Igneel's gaze that was perfectly identical to Jude's before he was killed.

As the click of the gun went off and blood and brain matter flew everywhere, Natsu felt a tear roll down his face as he once again watched his father leave him. His psyche completely blanked until he heard the worst sound he'd ever heard in his life. A scream with more pain and anguish than he could ever comprehend tore through his ears and plunged his heart down to his stomach. He didn't need to see who it was before he knew as he turned and saw her, "Lucy!"

Natsu ran towards the door once he saw her fall. He was there to catch her as she collapsed, her eyes were unseeing as she blacked out and his heart broke knowing this was not going to be the end of her torment.

Not even close.


.oOo.


Lucy awoke to a cold compress being gently pressed upon her head. The feeling startled her awake and forced her to take in her surroundings quicker than her eyes could discern.

She was in a room, smaller than the ones before. Actually, it was more like an office. One that had a lacquered dark wood desk, matching bookshelves, and leather couches and chairs one of which she was resting on. Dark curtains shielded most of the late afternoon light from the room, but a slim opening revealed enough light for her to see everything including the person that was taking care of her. Pink hair was the first thing she saw, as per usual with the man in front of her, but it was his glimmering emerald eyes that held her. She had never seen the man with so much emotion in his eyes before. As if, he just got the news that the world was ending and she was the first one he was going to tell. The sight was foreign to her yet she completely understood it all the same. In her one sweet moment of repressed ignorance, Lucy was confused and fretful over what could have given him such a look. Regret from exploring those feelings quickly came after as she was flung headfirst into remembrance as she continued to hold his harrowed stare.

"NO!" Lucy shot up in her seat, screaming as she once more felt tears roll down the side of her face at the memory.

Her father–

He was just...and then he…

It took five minutes for her to realize Natsu's arms were tight around her, tighter than anyone had ever held her, and yet she still couldn't feel them. Her mind acknowledged that they were there and yet she could not feel his usual warmth.

She was sobbing, ugly, and hard into his chest, surely snot was everywhere along with her tears and still he tried with all his might to hold her closer, to get her to feel that he was there with her. She could tell distantly that he was shaking as well and she questioned if he was crying with her.

It didn't matter in those five minutes that turned to ten, then thirty. Nothing mattered as they sat together huddled in that same chair an hour later damp with tears as Lucy dazed in and out of dreamless sleep.

She was exhausted.

"W-why?" She asked for the millionth time, except this time it was finally out loud. She was once more conscious after reviving from her daze. Her skin felt hot and clammy, her nose was perpetually runny, and her eyelids were swollen. Natsu shushed her, rubbing up and down her back and arms with his large warm hands as he handed her another tissue after she sniffled.

"Wh-wh-why." She cried again, tears breaking through her burning eyes and becoming painful as they sank past her chin. Maybe she hadn't been asking that question inside her head the whole time like she thought, based on Natsu's reaction.

After a long moment of him soothing her with his hands and them both watching as the sun drooped past the horizon between the small break in the curtains, Natsu finally answered her question.

"When…" The man's voice started, sounding grave and brittle. He seemed to notice it so he tried clearing his throat, but it did nothing to change the somber quality of his tone. "When...my Pops was... killed, I-I wanted everyone to feel what I felt too, to go through what I experienced, to hate the way I hated," Natsu spoke through Lucy's tensing form. His body became the opposite of hers, softening against her hard lines and melding against the areas he could feel she was cold. "I.. didn't understand back then why I had to go through all that shit in life, why I was forced to be tortured by the fates. Was it because I was the heir to a huge fortune? Was my life too gracious that I had to be taken down a peg? First, no mother who loved me, and right when I learned to take my head from my ass and appreciate my father he was taken from me too. And all I could do that whole time was twiddle my thumbs and carry on like the same little boy who watched his mother walk right out the house in front of him?" Natsu laughed mirthlessly.

Lucy slowly peered up to him as she took in his words. She noted as his gaze stayed distant that he was no longer with her in the present, but instead deep in his mind and that he was–what she didn't know was his first time, relenting his true feelings on the subject.

"I'm, I'm so sorry Lucy." She saw his jaw clench and her eyes started to sting once more as she bit her lip to stop its trembling. Her heart shattered all over again at just a few words. "I don't have the answer to your question, even as I sat here for the past hour or so thinking about it," he snorted, "no, that's not true, I've asked that question my whole life and I still don't have the damn answer. All I know, of which I wish I knew before, is that I shouldn't have ever wished for another person to feel the pain I went through, because those feelings made the person I care for the most, go through it as well."

Lucy felt her heart rush at his declaration of his feelings, and at the same time, she felt immense guilt. Her father was just killed and Natsu was finally expressing himself and yet she was the most affected by his vague declaration. One that he probably wasn't fully conscious he made as he continued to stare dazedly out the window. She flushed her head against his chest once more, ashamed of herself and her emotions. Father…

"What you feel now Lucy, I can't promise that it will go away. I'm still suffering...but," Natsu coughed, blinking slowly as he inched back to reality and guided his eyes back to hers. "Just know that I'm going to be here for you no matter what. I don't want you to be alone through this. We're going to be together...were partners." He finished with a small smile. His eyes crinkled closed at the ends and with the waning golden sun coming through the window his hair seemed to glow richly like a warm fire. He was beautiful.

Lucy felt embarrassed for him to see her so disheveled but knew he didn't care. At that moment, she realized the most important thing from now on was her and Natsu. And even if it was a bond forged in mutual traumas, it was the last bond she knew she couldn't let go of. From now on he was her everything, for better or worse. She...she loved him. Or she needed him? She didn't know but whatever this intense feeling was she knew it shackled her to this man. The only thing she could do now was pray that she didn't lose him as well. She didn't think she could survive it.

With that, she felt her tears well up once more, the warmest feeling of belonging flooded her but it felt undeserved. Natsu was never going to be her knight and shining armor, he was made to come into her life and trample all over it, take her away and force her to forget her friends, family, everything, to be possessed by him forever. Just like the dragon, he proclaimed himself to be.

She didn't know if that was what she wanted, she didn't know anything anymore. However, she knew her heart could no longer be denied, no matter how conversely her brain felt.

Lucy sobbed harder into Natsu's chest as he held her close. There they fell asleep in each other's arms to Lucy's woeful cries.


.oOo.


Some time passed as night slowly fell upon the city of Magnolia. The morning birds had already flown to their nests as owls blinked awake to hoot while possums and raccoons scavenged what gems they could find in trash bins and other hidden corners of the city. It was in José Porla's last moments of serenity as he took a deep delightful pull of his cigarette that the rain fell. And fell hard it did, the water rivulets torrential like a woman's scorn as it took out his light and made his bud completely useless.

"Ah, fuck!" He cursed, throwing the barely puffed stick down to the sodden ground and stamping at it like an unruly child.

"You okay over there boss?" One of his henchmen yelled. José had a piece of mind to tell the man to fuck off but knew he had better business directing him elsewhere.

"What the fuck does it look like you useless sap! I told your ass to make sure everything is going smooth at the docks, not to micromanage me!"

The average-looking man raised his hands in surrender at the onslaught his boss released. As José continued on, yelling and cursing, the henchmen realized it was his best bet to not tell the other man that black ink from his balding hairline was slowly dripping down onto his face and instead he decided José had the better option in mind, for him to stand by the docks without a word.

"Alright boss," The henchman turned and left, leaving José completely alone.

"First Acnologia has the audacity to tell me he didn't have Jude write me in on that cut of his fortune like he promised, then he puts me out on fucking guard duty!" The man cursed, kicking an errant can as his arms waved about in the air. He then grumbled to himself for not bringing a coat or a hat to ward off the sudden weather change that further dampened his mood.

"Oh but he'll see, they'll all fuckin' see, hehe." He chortled to himself, the rain licking his face and making his wrinkles seem like they would melt. His expression became sinister as he recanted his plan. "Little does he know I had Jude send another will, another signed with his daughter as the sole proprietor with notes that he would be propositioned to change it on this exact date and that the fake one would be null and void. Thankfully, Acnologia is a stickler for dates and times." José sneered. "I'm the only person who knows where it's at. I'll get it once the dust blows over that Jude has passed, find Lucy, and force her into marriage under some blackmail that I've been holding onto for years." He growled, his eyes almost glowing red from the prospects while the flash of lightning and rumble of thunder behind him seemed to set the backdrop for his nefarious intentions. He was sizzling with excitement to get his hands on his prize, the little girl and her money all wrapped in one. Preferably on his bed.

Jose felt his palate drool at the thought.

"Acnologia will be locked away forever once the authorities not only get a hold of the will but all the information I'll get Lucy to tell. They'll be a pile of goo to anything she says with her big brown eyes all tearing up," José licked his lips, "She won't tell a soul about me though once she knows what I'll do…The cops haven't been able to catch Acnologia in years, but he sealed the deal on his life when he double-crossed me! Me, the man who has possession of his daily whereabouts and pertinent information on all of his hideouts. He'll be locked up in no time." The man laughed like a hyena, holding his belly and bending his back to the sky he knew his plan was foolproof. He just had to play as Acnologia's sick little puppy for a while longer, get the man to believe he had given up, and then take his time ruining him piece by piece.

Just like any other time José recanted his brilliant plan his mood brightened as he walked down the alleyway toward the docks. So much so that he started to whistle a tune and completely forgot about being soaked in rain. It was due to his sudden zeal and cocksure attitude that he allowed his weasel-like instincts–the same ones that got him out of the hairiest of situations in the past, to slip past him enough that his senses didn't pick up on the sound of hushed whispers and puddle stamping feet.

When he did finally notice the disturbance, it was too late. Quickly, like the lightning striking the sky, he was bludgeoned across the head by something heavy then firmly kicked in the abdomen, the force pushing him into a heap of garbage.

Bottles popped scattering across the ground, aluminum cans groaned against his immediate weight, and rats skittered from their hidey-holes in search of a new safe haven. "Wh-who are you!" The bespot cried, completely disoriented.

A chuckle and then, "The reaper, here to collect."

"Heh, like I haven't heard that bef–" He started before getting resoundingly kicked in the face.

José cursed, sitting up as much as he could after suffering from the hit. He roughly wiped his hand over his face to disguise the pain he felt pulsing throughout his skull as blood leaked slowly from his mouth and nose.

He couldn't tell much about his assailants due to the shadows of the night playing against their features. However, of what he could tell he saw that there were only two of them and that they wore dark jackets over black clothes. He assumed that the one who assaulted him was the leader as he was the closest to him and was holding a gun. The same object he guessed was used to hit him with earlier.

Despite the ringing of fear in his chest, he wouldn't allow himself to be demeaned by corner store thugs like these. "Listen here punk, if you're trying to mug me, you've got the wrong guy. I rule these streets, and I'll have every damn gangster in town coming to look for your ass before dawn even breaks." He finished, spitting out the last of the blood in his mouth to the side.

He was heaving in a pit of garbage soaked through by the rain and yet the bastard would not relinquish his false sense of power.

"Is that so?" Finally, the dark hood of the man standing the farthest away was pulled off to reveal a pink head of hair and piercing dark eyes. Once again, as if they were in a bad episode of a suspense-filled television series, lightning flashed in the background causing the man's gaze to become that much more lethal.

José scooted his back up against the trash quickly, his disposition completely changing at the true face of his attackers. "Dr-Dragneel!" He yelled looking between the man's soulless eyes to the dark shadowed visage of his partner.

The unspoken question was answered once Gray Fullbuster revealed his own face as well. "Your time is up Porla," he sneered.

"H-How did you find me!?"

"Tsk, tsk, tsk," Gray shook his head, obviously the more vocal of the two, "I don't think that should be your main concern, old man. In fact, I think you should be more worried about what we're going to do to you." He glared, and his eyes–his eyes transported José back eighteen years ago to a night he saw the same shade of slate blue glaring at him in a mixture of pain and horror. Those eyes that watched as his mother was assaulted by the older man's hands and projected to him all of the things he wished he could do but frustratedly understood his feeble young body couldn't. The strong arms of burly henchmen that held him down as his small limbs flailed, made his eyes grow a fiery hatred that grew stronger and stronger.

The years that culminated since then, made those eyes–surprisingly hardened for a child at the time, even more so now. The frustration was no longer there, the fear was completely gone, all that was left was rage and it was as all-consuming and glacial as ice. Spikes of the same matter took over José's senses and clawed deep into his veins.

This was not good, not one bit.

Gray was seething. He hated the man, everyone knew that. On his top ten list of enemies, José was second to only Deliora, the man who was the leader of the gang José was once a part of that led all of those bloodthirsty freaks to kill his family. Gray got away, but he wasn't safe for long. Deliora came back once more to kill his adopted older sister Ur, but he was able to kill the man in cold blood with the help of the woman before she relinquished her last breath. He had vowed to make sure every other low-level scum that was there that day was killed as well until José was the last on his list. The snake had been slimy until now, getting away from him each and every time Gray thought he would be victorious until he eventually got hired by Jude and invariably recieved his protection which squandered immediate ideas of retribution, but no more of that. Today would be his day of deliverance.

His hatred had been fueled further at the turmoil he had put Lucy through as well, the ebony-haired man still couldn't get over her stricken face and pained shriek as her father was killed in front of her. Over the time he had spent with Lucy, he had come to like her, even care for her like the rest of his family. They had bonded quickly after the night he saved her from the dorms, conversating and making fun of Natsu's grumpiness during the few times the man had his back turned to them hanging out. Her spunk and resoluteness reminded him of Ur. Much like how Ur dealt with the death of their parents by pressing on and moving forward, Lucy braved her issues and made do with what she had. It blew Gray's mind as he had judged her to be a spoilt rich girl–a personality trait that was common with her breeding, but instead, she soldiered on. Even better, she didn't just roll over and take what Natsu handed to her, she dished out her own brand of wit and had him on his toes with her insolence. Just because she was in his care didn't mean she had to be nice. Natsu had to work for her favor. And seeing his boss ruffled by the small girl was beyond amusing. Natsu in distress, that was enough to get Gray's respect. She was a part of Tartoros now, and although he hated to see it, her pain resonated with everyone else's in the gangs. Gray, just like the rest of the family lived by one moniker, 'you hurt one of them you get blasted by all of them'.

And so, he was there to repay his loyalty to Lucy, to Ur, and to his mom. José's death would be the sweetest revenge for his family.

With that thought in mind, Gray passed his gun over to Natsu then revealed his brass knuckles. At the same time, he sucked his tongue along the front of his teeth, "As they say…it's best served cold," he stated before delivering blow after blow onto the man's face, chest and stomach.

Natsu waited patiently, watching with quiet delight as the man was beaten to death. Gray continued on until he was tired, knowing better than to hit areas that would truly cause his death. No, he needed to die slowly and pathetically. In the same fashion the man lived his life. If he was sick enough he would dare to have someone rape the man just like he had raped his mother. It would be the least that he deserved.

Panting, after one last brutal kick to the man's side that caused a splatter of blood to volley out of José's mouth, Gray relented. His brass knuckles got a taste of the coppery essence they thirsted for, but as the rain washed the red evidence away, he felt them singing for more as his fists shook with restraint. It was only when Natsu put his hand on his shoulder that he abstained.

"Cock sucker," Gray spat at him, watching with satisfaction as it hit him right in the middle of his forehead.

José wasn't completely out for the count as he coughed up more blood and rolled over to his side, "Fu...fuck you."

Natsu stopped Gray before he went back at it, deciding it was time for him to start asking questions.

"Where's Acnologia?"

A snort, "Where do you think?" Was José's snide reply.

POP!

Blood spurted from the man's calf, Natsu intentionally missing the man's bone and going straight through the flesh. Nevertheless, he was sure it still hurt like a bitch.

"AHHH! Fuck you, you pink-haired bitch!" José rolled, looking black and blue from his injuries and completely disgusting like the maggot he was as layers of trash and grime began to cling to him like skin. His current visage only reflected what Natsu was sure his inner self deserved. Make him ten times uglier and he was sure it was spot on. Natsu shot him again.

POW!

"Okay! Okay! I'm sorry!" José's cries were barely heard over the thundering rain nor the bullets that rang through the air, Natsu was not in the least worried about any unwelcome visitors.

"He's, he's at 19th and Broadway, off of Creary Avenue." José finally relented, he could barely hold himself up and the leg Natsu put two holes in started to shake. Natsu guessed that he hadn't been careful enough, recognizing the signs of his nerves being shot. The pink-haired man shrugged, either way it worked in his favor.

"You mean...that can't be!" Gray swung back around to the man, flabbergasted at the announcement of Acnologia's location.

"Yeah," José sneered, his eyes floating from Gray's outburst back towards Natsu's severe gaze. José would never admit it, but he felt the hair on his arms rise with fear at the look the younger man gave him. He was never easily swayed but he knew the look of death when it was staring back at him. "Your father's first territory."

José watched as Natsu's expression slowly went from emotionless to white-hot rage. "It was where we killed Jude not too long ago on the main floor, and yes, the place where we killed your father as well, in the basement." The man's grotesque face curled with delight, the corners of his mouth taking over half of his visage as the memory once again played out in the filthy abyss of his wretched mind.

POW!

"AHH! FUCK, FUCK, FUCK!" José screamed, holding tightly the ear that got shot off, blood dripping quickly down his side.

"Natsu!" Gray shouted, pushing at the man's arm before he could blow another hole in the man, one that inched closer to his brain. Natsu looked away, seething with rage at the realization that Acnologia was under his nose, with his father in captivity in his own domain the whole fucking time. It was the greatest joke to the shit storm that was his life. "We gotta keep him alive to get more answers! Trust me, I have more than enough reasons to kill this fucker! Hell, the precinct will give us money if we deposit his rotting corpse at the police department's doorstep. But we gotta stay focused."

Natsu shook off Gray quickly, "I know." He growled, looking at his watch as he considered how much time they had, considering if they could get Jellal to round the guys up quick enough to meet them at the warehouse, and guessing how quickly he could get rid of Porla before he found Acnologia next.

"Heh, heh, heh." The heated men paused to hear José's snickering, slowly they turned to him. Watching as the man weakly cupped his ear with a smirk, his rain and blood soaked fingers trembling as they failed to find purchase. "Acnologia's long gone boys, he was on the first plane smokin' before shit hit the fan," he spoke, his words slurred from blood loss.

"Where is he going?" Natsu growled. He raised his arm once more ready to shoot, this time he made a show of pointing at a vital organ knowing that would really get him to talk. Lips tend to loosen when the end of your life has a rapidly declining countdown.

José slanted his head thoughtfully while raising his finger. That got Natsu and Gray to raise their shackles.

"That…I don't know."

"Quit fucking around, old man!" Gray growled.

"Honest." José grinned, his eyes blinking quickly as his voice dropped off. And it was true, while he knew Acnologia's hot spots and general itinerary when he was in the city of Fiore, he had no clue of his location when he left. It was the one fallacy in his overarching plan. Once Acnologia came back is when things would get started and José would be able to take the man down, until then he was stuck complaining about the man and fantasizing about his win by himself.

Gray looked to Natsu knowing the man was thinking as he stared darkly towards the cowed man on the ground. They didn't have many options at this point. It was truly starting to feel like every step forward they took was met with five steps back.

"What else do you know, what else is Acnolgia doing behind my back?"

"Oh you know little bit of this and a little bit of that," José flinched as Natsu's gun waved higher, "Let's just say I would weed out a few of your low-level henchmen, Acnologia has been marking every move you make before you make it so that he knows where to step." He laughed, "He's not as powerful as you think though. Just knock out his main goal and you're home free!"

"That's a load of shit! No one in Tartaros would turn on their family!" Gray rebuffed.

José just shrugged his hunched shoulders innocently.

Natsu furrowed his brow, pondering if he meant the will being signed over to Acnologia instead of Lucy as his main goal. They didn't know he knew about that since the file was supposed to be sent to Lucy only and it shouldn't have been sent yet... The video was still sitting on the file from the IP address they had tracked meaning, they still had no idea where Lucy was despite Natsu's extreme lack of care in that regard. He cursed himself silently for playing Lucy's part in everything so low until now. Her safest spot truly was still with him, yet the less knowledge they had the better. The press conference they were going to have about their engagement would have to be canceled and the lingerie photoshoot print, stalled.

Natsu whipped out his phone, quickly texting some people and making a mental note to make some calls later.

"You know what your biggest fault is in all of this, boy? Secrets. Secrets, you don't know. Your parent's secrets. Acnologia is a lot closer to you than you think. Find out their history, why don't you." José raised his sharp brow to the younger man, cocked it like the draw of a gun. "You might even need to call up your mother..."

Natsu stood still, his breathing slowed and his head spun. Every time the woman was mentioned it made him sick. A feeling that was happening a lot more nowadays. His mother, Juli Vermillion, had a hand deep in this pot of crud and it was looking like sooner, rather than later she was going to be making a grand entrance into his life once more if he wanted answers.

"Stop talking in riddles, ya fuckin' lunatic!" Gray finally reared back to give the man another good kick in the head, a proper one that would at least knock him out for a while, but José used the last of his energy to catch him unaware. The thin, aged man narrowly dodged the kick before pulling out a gun of his own.

Gray's eyes widened, the irises dulling in color as his pupils blew out.

Before the man could pull the trigger, Natsu made his move first, shooting off half of his hand at such a close range.

"AHHHHHH!" As the gun went skidding across the cold pavement, José heaved, using his last hand to pull out his knife, the older man's adrenaline pushing him to survive by any means necessary. However, just like before he wasn't quick enough and this time Gray made the final blow. With José's captured bloodied gun in hand, he emptied the rest of the cartridge into the man's body until José started looking more like cheese than man.

With one last slump and wheeze, the man's chest stopped moving and his face darkened over.

"Great, he's dead." Natsu deadpanned. "I thought you were supposed to stop me from killing the creep?"

"...Fuck."


AN: Hey guys! Sorry it took so long to update! Few reasons why, that I'll get to in this AN, but first and foremost I really want to thank all of you for your lovely reviews and continued patronage. I know this is a free work of fiction, but it still means a lot that I can get validation for something I consider a hobby, haha. I know it takes a long time sometimes for me to update, and this story has been ongoing for a long while, but I promise I will never quit it before it's completely done. This fic, heck writing in general is a release for me, a way to express myself and destress. Even though I have no real aspirations for it, I think I will always continue to write as long as there is something to write about.

Anyways, the first reason for the long update is because I moved back to Japan, during a pandemonium no less–lmao. I'm teaching here for the time being as I figure out what I want to do after college. I have a lot of down time now that I'm settled, but I've been busy for a year preparing to go. Another reason is because of the chapter overall. This relates back to me saying writing is a release, even a form of therapy for me. The reason is as follows (might be a little heavy and angsty so skip if you want):

This part was kind of hard for me to write because it reminded me of the time when my dad was in the hospital and I first heard he didn't make it. Until that point of waiting for him to recover, I had dissociated as well and had no emotions about my father's state outside of the superficial ones. My father and I hadn't had the best relationship because of his abuse of drugs and alcohol and I am not the best in stressful situations in general so I was handling everything very distantly. It was only when my aunt walked up to me while my other family members and I had been waiting in the lobby for a while, and implied that he was gone that I lost it, everything came to me at once. All of my emotions all of my fears, the depth of everything happening. It finally hit me, I was losing a parent. Strong relationship or not, it's hard for anyone to lose that kind of soul tie. I channeled into that emotion, one that I will never forget for as long as I live, because it was the most striking and intense emotion I ever felt in my life, to write Lucy's reaction to her father being killed in front of her after she felt immense betrayal towards him.

I wanted those extreme contrasting emotions to be prevalent here because the human psyche is never rational or set in one course. You can believe you're completely done with a person, that you have no more love to give, and then feel the worst you ever have when they're gone. That's what I thought, how I felt. My dad wasn't the best parent but he loved me the same as the best parent would, he just couldn't get past his demons as I'm sure Jude in this story can relate to. I know my story has a lot of strong and intense topics and themes but trust I handle none of them lightly especially when it comes to the psychological effects that change the characters. It may seem like they are thoughtlessly put in but I'm constantly thinking of the trials I put my characters through to help with the seemingly irrational decisions I have them make later. That's life, no one makes sense, people don't always act with morality and virtue as we expect them to and that's what I want to be seen in my story. Lucy is a victim of circumstance who sometimes relates pain to love in order to cope. She doesn't know what healthy is and she's unaware of what she deserves. Natsu is a lost soul who won't settle for what he wants in fear that he will be rejected again. So he pushes people away. I dare say he suffers from trauma-built PTSD or some other form of that.

In the next few chapters their emotions will take a rollercoaster ride, but that's what happens when something so jarring happens in your life, Lucy has never faced something to this extent before and for Natsu, it's happening a second time when he couldn't even handle it the first. I know many stories would go onto the route of Natsu and Lucy having a healthy relationship to combat their issues because of true love and all that, but no one said true love was unmessy especially with all of this trauma soaking in their lives. I may have Natsu and Lucy partake in drugs, alcohol, sex (with each other–I won't have them go that far with other people, lol). Things that give them a release so that they can avoid rectifying their feelings, and it may seem like they're moving on too fast or avoiding such a shocking part of the story especially since I'll be added in time skips here and there as well. They are broken people forced to pick up their own pieces, it's going to have to get worse before it gets better and some parts may be hard for you to read, but as I've said before I write for myself first and foremost so I understand if you can't stomach it. At the end of the day, this is fiction and my work of art that I have every right to make. However, I do appreciate you guys hanging on for the ride, and all the support nonetheless. My motivation definitely gets reignited due to you all. I promise to continue to make this fic entertaining more than anything. I'm not huge into angst despite all that I've said and this chapter–so I don't think it would ever get too dark or if it does, I won't hang on to that tone for long. I don't want to completely change the shape of the story and give yall whiplash lmao. Natsu and Lucy will be endgame, but some of you may wish they weren't (depending on how you'll feel about certain topics). I want to evoke complicated reactions as they relate to real-life opinions on relationships and love. Sometimes a beautiful relationship starts off as crud, and you have to brush off all the dirt to see the beauty underneath. Nevertheless, I hope to give an entertaining lens to everything that happens. Also, even though I put thought into how the characters act and react through a psychological viewpoint, I do not claim to have a mastery in that field nor an authority to how anyone's life will end up if a, b, or c happens. This is fiction for entertainment purposes only. I also don't write to belittle or make light of mentioned disorders, referencing these things is for fictional purposes only and per my interpretation they best symbolize the state the characters are in at the time. If I use the wrong wording please use this as a premade apology. Feel free to correct me and I will try to correct any mistakes made as long as it fits the story.

With that said, I hope you guys enjoyed the long-awaited chapter! Please tell me what you think. The next chap will have more Nalu, perhaps a time skip and it will be a little less heavy (I think, lol). Anyway, it's going to be good so stay tuned.

Sorry for the long as hell AN!