WARNING: Rated MA for Explicit Graphic Depictions of Violence, Graphic Depiction of Rape/Non-Consensual Sex, Graphic Sex, Graphic Physical and Mental Abuse, and Mental Instability. Please read at your own discretion.

I do not own Fairy Tail; All major characters depicted in this fan-created fiction story belong to Hiro Mashima.

CHAPTER 30

The ex-bandit moved from out of the thick foliage that had served as his camouflage in blocking his view from the injured woman. The rusting of the small branches of the bushes had alerted the downed person on the ground, making his presence known.

"Woman. Do you require assistance?" The resonance of his voice was met with a slight jump from the woman when she finally noticed his presence. It was possible that he had put too much demand behind his offer to help. His voice lingered through the space between them, letting him know the woman was apprehensive of his proffer.

However, it couldn't be helped.

He was out of practice when it came to being a semi-decent human it would seem. All those years with his tyrannical brother and his men had effectively almost turned him into an uncaring brute of a man.

Almost.

If his brother had succeeded in his way of raising him, he definitely would have turned out much, much worse. At least he had some morality on what was right and what was wrong. However, breaking the cycle of how he was raised and what he was taught was a heavy burden on his soul, and took a lot of willpower.

Kindness didn't come naturally to the emerald-eyed mage, at least not yet. Everything had to be thought through thoroughly. It wasn't his instinct to immediately want to render aid to someone, he had to push himself to do it.

The vine mage knelt down to examine the woman's wounds, cautious and a little unsure of how to handle the situation. He's never really been known to be the most gentle or caring guy in the world, but he did want to at least try and be better, and being better meant not leaving an injured person alone to possibly die- not anymore.

The woman, which he could now see was well within her fifties, maybe even older- smiled at the man.

"What a nice young man." The older woman smiled up at the vine mage while she moved to stand but stopped when the action had her wincing in pain.

"It seems I had lost my footing in this wet mess of mud and fell and scraped up my knee pretty badly." The lady explained while moving back to sit on the wet Earth once again.

While looking her over, the mage noticed that her wounds, while very messy and covered with blood and mud, weren't as bad as he initially thought. However, she did also have a scrape on her head that was still bleeding. This didn't surprise the mage, since head wounds were prone to bleed more than wounds on the lower extremities.

Curiosity had the red-haired man looking from the wound on her head to the woman's face. Her skin could not hide the signs of a well-worn life in the form of frown lines and crow's feet. However, she still held an air of youthfulness through her warm smile and the light within her aged blue eyes.

Emerald eyes darted behind him to the direction where he knew his brother was. If the lightning mage had decided to try and follow him, he would be arriving any minute now. He needed to leave.

"You have a head wound, as well. Where is the nearest hospital?" The vine mage knelt to pick up the woman, not caring at the moment about the blood and wet Earth that would sink into his borrowed clothing.

"Young one, do not worry about that, my home isn't too far from here. I am a hermit by nature and tend to keep to myself and a select few others." The vine mage didn't put up too much of a protest about the lack of interest in her own health. He didn't have time for such luxuries. He needed to help this woman back to her home, and then figure out a way to get the hell out of Fiore by himself.

He quickly got the directions from the woman, thanking the gods that they were in a different direction from Magnolia and the direction his brother was currently in. The redhead wasted no time in using his vines to propel them up into the trees; a small surprised gasp escaped the wounded old lady from the swift action.

The vines from his magic quickly moved them up and further away from a potential confrontation with his enraged and irate brother.

Helping this woman could be his first step to atoning for all he has done. This would be his first attempt at helping instead of hurting someone.

Rogue felt anxiety form in his gut when the scent of his love faded away along with the trail of her blood. The ebony-haired slayer felt his heart sink, it was like the closer he got to her, the further she moved away from him.

The slayer came to a stop at the sight of a large red stain upon the Earth, the spot was the last of her scent before it completely disappeared altogether.

The shadow dragon slayer let out a roar filled with both anguish and frustration. He has been so close to finding her, so close to having her back within his arms.

Where could she have gone?

The lonely aching feeling of their broken bond had settled back within him when Rogue realized Lucy was too far away for the half-completed bond to work. Panicked fear rolled over the slayer once more in waves when his eyes darted directly where her scent was the strongest.

Blood.

Lucy's blood was here, and there was a considerable amount. The iron-rich liquid had sunk within the earth, leaving a crimson stain upon the muddened Earth.

How could she just disappear when there's so much blood saturating the ground? She couldn't have just left on her own, certainly not by the looks of it. She had to have been bleeding from the wyvern's talons.

Oh gods, how did she end up on the ground anyways? Did she fall from out of the sky? The more the slayer's mind raced with thoughts, the more a sinking feeling gnawed at the slayer when another terrible and foreboding thought slipped into his mind.

What if the escaped bandits had found her before he did?

Desperately scenting the air once more, the ebony-haired slayer tried to focus on any small trace of her smell that would give him some type of hint of which way she could have gone, but was only met with the earthen scent of the wet ground.

Falling to his knees, the ebony-haired male released another forlorn and anguished shadow dragon's roar into the sky before it dwindled down into a broken sob.

He was failing her. Rogue balled his fists and brought them down to the soggy Earth, letting his frustrations out onto the wet ground below him. He could never be a good mate to Lucy if he can't even protect her from being taken away from him so easily.

One minute she had been there with him, and the next she was gone. His whole life had been upheaved once he could no longer feel the steady hum of their bond. A hollow loneliness replaced the once steady flow of emotions the blonde would unconsciously feed him.

His hair, which Lucy had taken time out of her morning to brush into a neat ponytail, had long ago started to fall from its tie from all of the commotion. His damp locks fell to cover both of his tearful eyes. He would never forgive himself for allowing this to happen to Lucy- to his mate.

"Please, please gods. Don't do this to her again. Please, please just let me find her and she is okay." His voice was small and watery from the force of his crying, but he couldn't be bothered by it as he bent his forehead to the ground, praying to whatever deity would listen. He couldn't bear for another bad thing to happen to that woman. It would kill him.

What kind of mate would allow something like this to happen to their beloved?

The dark-haired slayer could tell despite being surrounded by trees that the weather was taking a turn for the worst. The slight drizzle that had been on and off was turning into a small torrential downpour. All hopes of catching the blonde's scent had been flushed away, much like her blood by the pelting rain.

Rogue let another small pained sob rock through his body, the over-exertion of his magic finally catching up to him the longer he sat on the cold wet earth.

"Rogue.." The ebony-haired slayer removed his head from the muddened Earth to look back at a heartbroken Yukino who was slowly detaching herself from his fellow slayer's back. Through the haze of rain, Rogue could tell the silver-haired mage had been crying.

Yukino couldn't keep herself from sniffling while she walked over to the kneeling and sobbing dark-haired man.

"I can't lose her, Yukino. I just can't. She's a piece of me that I never knew I was missing. I love her. I love her so much." Rogue clinched his fist within the soaked Earth, clinging to the fading faint scent of his potential mate.

Yukino knelt down to wrap her arms around the shaking shoulders of the slayer, while Sting put his hand on Rogue's shoulder.

"We'll find her, buddy. We'll find her." Sting pat his best friend's shoulder once more, not even caring that the shadow mage was sobbing into his mate's chest at this point. The blonde man couldn't even imagine the anguish Rogue must be feeling right now.

"Fro thinks so too!" A distraught Frosch moved from the spot the feline had been sitting in Rogue's pack to crawl on his slayer's shoulder to hug his head.

Sting knew that the ebony-haired man had fallen so deeply and so fully in love with the blonde fairy. He knew that the two falling for one another was inevitable, and Rogue finding Lucy on the brink of death was a sign of their fate. They were meant to be together, just as much as he felt he and Yukino were meant to be.

Lucy was a precious person to both his best friend as well as his mate, which were a part of the white dragon slayer's family. The blonde was basically the personification of the bond between Sabertooth and Fairy Tail, so Lucy was like his family now too.

And, he'll be damned if he lets anyone hurt his family.

"Well, look how fucking lucky I am." An agitated scowl morphed into a sinister smirk while the brunette mage dropped from a nearby tree none too quietly.

It seemed that choosing not to chase after his weak and useless brother had worked out in his favor. The burly mage snickered as the seemingly already injured woman in front of him twitched, but didn't wake.

Lightning licked at the man's skin, the magic reacting to his feral excitement. To think that he would find the object of his obsession by stalking off into the woods. Surely, he must be doing something right for the gods to bestow such a gift before him.

The brunette looked all around, but couldn't see or sense anybody close by.

And she was alone!

What a gift indeed.

The burly male wasted no time in grabbing the wounded woman's arm with more force than necessary and heaved her up and over his shoulder. The sound caused a pained gasp to escape the still unconscious celestial mage.

"Damn it. She's heavier than she looks." The lightning mage grunted before starting to backtrack his way to what he noticed earlier to be an abandoned wyvern den. He had scoped out the cave etched into the hill earlier and deduced that it looked to be vacant and could serve as a resting spot if he needed it for the coming night.

The brunette was originally just going to outright kill the blonde when he finally got his hands on her, but eventually decided that he wanted her suffering to be prolonged to make up for the time he had spent within the council's prison.

The lightning mage had spent a long time fantasizing about all the tortuous things he could inflict on the blonde, but now that he had a hold on her, he couldn't decide exactly which one he wanted to enact first.

He could always start with using her to satisfy himself again. After all, it had been a while since he'd had a release. In fact, the last time was with her, so it would be fitting to begin his newfound freedom buried deep within her tight little cunt.

The brunette brought his free hand up to touch the back of the unconscious woman's thigh while the thoughts of all the perverted things he could make the blonde do while she was unconscious.

Or would he prefer her to be lucid for this? He didn't really care. There was plenty of time to do both, after all. She was alone once again, so obviously, no one was worried about her.

Well, that and the fact that he had come across a real nifty magic item that masked his presence while he had ransacked a few cabins he had come across on the way to Magnolia.

He had absolutely no reason to hurry. He'll just use the item to mask her presence and scent as well as his own. No one would come looking for her.

At that thought, the lightning mage took notice of the small brown satchel. A flare of anger coursed through the male, causing him to roughly yank the belt from her waist with a snap. Those damn keys of hers were a problem last time, and he wasn't going to make that mistake again.

The brunette stuffed the brown pack into his own pocket along with the magical item; he'd check out the keys later once they got to the den.

You guys.

I have no idea how I can express my deepest regrets and shame that it has taken me THIS long to update. I'm so very VERY sorry.

I took my time and reread this whole story (Kind of fell in love with it again too), and spent the whole following week cranking out chapter, after chapter until the whole entire story was almost finished! ( I have like only a few more chapters to write, then this is done!) Also, in between writing these chapters, as an apology to you all, I illustrated an image of Lucy using Rogue's Shadows. I am on DeviantArt so if you guys want to see any more drawings from the story feel free to look me up there under the same username! SynriLynn

Thank you to everyone that has stuck with me this long.