With Wendy

Wendy walked solemnly to her apartment. Even if it wasn't the end of the day, she was more than worn out for the rest of the week. One of the biggest rules of this group was to not get attached to fellow members. Yet everyone seemed to break just that one. For the one person who ended up leaving first. It even happened without her realizing. Months turned into a year or two and by then, she was already just a bit too acquainted with the members of Phoenix. What if the same thing that happened to Quator were to occur? She couldn't even imagine the consequences. Suddenly, an arm. A large arm wrapped fast against her mouth. It almost hurt how rough this person was being. She would have believed it were Gray if he weren't wallowing in depression downstairs. Everyone planned on going home to do the same, and everyone looked forward to it, to leave the building empty. So by now, everyone should be gone. Another arm held her arms taut painfully behind her back. This person was tall, warm and smelled heavenly. The next thing things she noticed were the obvious pieces of hard metal attached to.. their outfit? Knives or guns maybe. Or something else entirely. For now, it didn't matter. She was being held captive by someone with trained arms and experienced hands. Their legs pressed against her own behind her told her they were muscular, another reason to be worried.

"Your friends are still downstairs— if you say a word, I will kill you." The deep voice spoke. She immediately recognized it despite only hearing it once for a brief moment. It was important to her and fresh in her mind. How come, she wondered, whenever she was in danger was the only time she didn't have a weapon? Or in this case, it was out of reach. Her bag was on the floor and full of things she didn't want anyone seeing. Especially not this person. Slowly, they removed the arm restraining her mouth. But Wendy kept as quiet as she could, not wanting to risk anything she didn't have to. "Good." They spoke, arms tying hers together behind her. "You and I both know why I'm here." Wendy shut her eyes tightly, lifting her leg and quickly swinging it back behind her in an attempt to end this person and their blood lineage. "Oh!" They said in shock, catching her leg in their hand with little effort. "You almost got me." They lifted her in the air by her foot and swung her down onto her back. Wendy's lungs deflated much too quickly for her body to cope, the wind was knocked out of her and it hurt more than it ever had before. Even being shot hadn't hurt this bad. Or at least she didn't think it did, she couldn't recall much but the numbness of bullets hitting your skin. Her back stung and her limbs went numb, curled into themselves from shock. Eyes wide, his then met hers, angry, empty and terrifying; just the way she remembered them. "Pull that again and once again, I will kill you." She didn't respond attempting to breath in heaves of oxygen to relieve her pain. After a moment or two and once her legs were tied together, the man stood and lifted her by her arm.

"What do you want?" She asked him, voice weak and barely a whisper. He didn't look at her for even a second at that.

"You know what I want, genius. I want that damn photo you took of me." Wendy chuckled and lightly coughed.

"And what are you going to do if I don't give it to you?" The man looked up in thought.

"Did Jellal ever tell you guys of the little thing he does before he kills his female victims?" The name Jellal spilling from the man's mouth didn't even faze her as the threat settled in. Her eyes shot wide open and she stayed completely silent. The man laughed heartily after a moment or two. "Relax, I'm only kidding. That man has mental issues, I already have all the information I need. Now, then. Please do comply, it would benefit the both of us if you do what I want you to." Wendy shook her head and grinned in an attempt to hide her fear.

"Fuck you." She said simply. The man frowned deeply, slamming her against the wall with one hand on her collar.

"If you insist." He said smugly, watching the unfazed front she put up almost crumble from the pain racking through her body again. Her teeth visibly clenched at his words, however the sounds of feet rushing up the stairs nearby threw both of them into panic. She could not let anyone see her bleed this badly. She could not let anyone see the mess the son of a bitch was making of her. He scowled quickly after the discovery and opened the door close by them, throwing her in and locking it behind him. He knew this place well. A storage closet he made sure they were close by before capturing her. Just in case something like this were to happen. He wrapped a hand around her mouth and leaned them both against the door, the young lady between his legs. Nearly immediately, that previous thought of 'the most beautiful man she had ever seen' returned and made her squirm but it vanished just as quickly when she felt his tighten his hand around her mouth. Remembering that she was currently a hostage and rape (or murder) was very much in the books for her at the moment. Outside, Gray's voice cursed repeatedly.

"Shit shit shit!! Where is Wendy, my god!??" The man behind Wendy silently panicked, checking around her pockets in search for her phone. The nearly silent sound of Gray's phone ringing to call Wendy alerted her of what he was doing. Much to his relief, the phone rang outside, on the floor where her bag was dropped. It was Wendy's turn to panic, she hoped desperately he wouldn't search around in her bag. She shook and squirmed, trying to escape and maybe, just maybe, grab her bag before he could.

"Fuck. Stop moving, idiot!" The man yelled quietly in her ear. Wendy didn't listen and the man was regretting his decisions. But it was futile as Gray reached in and swiftly picked up her phone, reading his name on the screen and looking around a moment. All Wendy could hear was the silencing of her phone and the flop of it against her bag as he dropped it there and left. The man shoved Wendy's legs sharply.

"Ow!" She squealed beneath his hand. She glared at him, asking him what that was for if she hadn't done anything. He scowled and quickly shoved her away from him. His face was flared red and his teeth bared in anger.

"I told you to stop moving, you fucking idiot!" He yelled, facing away from her on the floor.

"Why are you being so rude, I was freaking out, I'm sorry! Jesus, don't get so worked up!" She sighed and glanced at the floor. The man grabbed her by the arm again and yanked her away from the door, unlocking it and dragging her bag in the room quickly. On top lay her phone,

"Stop it!" She pleaded as he opened it and inwardly cringed at her wallpaper. A man with similar hair to his, tattoos covering his body, deep brown eyes and a microphone in hand. He was smiling somewhere past the vibrant red and yellow lights illuminating him. Cute. A celebrity crush. Wendy frowned in embarrassment, eyes watering at her pitiful situation. She wanted to be in control of what was happening to her. Why was she here? Why was this happening?

"Tang Lui, huh? I know of him, he's a super famous singer, isn't he? Uber rich, good looks, muscle, fame, women. Man, that guy really has it all, huh?" He slid her phone to the password screen and looked at her for a moment, typing in the name of the celebrity on her wallpaper and hitting enter. To no one's surprise, the phone opened and he was on her home screen.

"Please stop. Please..." She whispered, cheeks flushed a red he had never seen before. But he didn't listen and continued on his journey to her photos. To say the least, what he found was... unexpected. Well, expected to some degree but this? It wasn't like every photo there was provocative but for the most part, maybe around 50% of the pictures were of her body fully unclothed and ass cheeks naked. Another 20% were in her underwear. He stared for a moment before shutting it off and placing it down on the shelf nearby.

"I... I am so sorry." He whispered apologetically. Wendy grinded her teeth, a tear or two slipping down her cheeks despite her efforts to keep them at bay. "I'm sorry I did not know— that was unintentional— or I, I don't-" her phone beeped and vibrated for a split second and the man peeked over at her screen. It was a message from some middle aged man with a creepy profile on an app he had never heard of before.

"Wendy#1fan donated 400" another one popped up. "From Wendy#1fan: Hey babe, thanks for the pics, I hope we can do this again, gorgeous ;) Do you offer private..." the man scowled again but this time, he faced her fully and unapologetically.

"Don't tell me you're selling your body." He scoffed in disbelief that someone like this would be in such a position. "Tell me this is a fucking joke." Wendy trembled in fear and utter humiliation. God damn it. She wanted to die more than she ever had before. "Why the hell would someone like you ever have to put your body out for fucking sale???" His expression held nothing but confusion and disbelief.

"Yeah, I know I don't seem like the person who would need to do that but I have no choice!" She yelled, legs shut tightly together.

"There's always more than one option. This place has always paid good so whats the problem?? What do you need so much money for?" He didn't sound angry, not that he should've been, just confused.

"Life isn't so easy for some people, you know. My sister is in the hospital and she needs treatment. A lot of it. The bills aren't cheap and this place pays just not enough for that. My face has been seen before on countless wanted posters so it would be impossible for me to get a job. The only other option was this and it works. It lets me just scrape by for me and her so there isn't a problem."

"Of course there's a problem! You don't have to do that! Anything else works. Literally anything other than putting one of your most valuable things out for everyone to see. If it no longer has value, whats the point? Get it? It doesn't make sense to sell yourself and valuables for some fucking money.

"Are you trying to tell me my most valuable things are my tits and ass!?"

"Yes. Literally yes." Wendy was silent. She was surprised he actually said yes instead of denying it the way most did. "They should matter to you, too. Everything about you should mean enough to you— should be private and special enough to you so that you don't ask people for money in exchange for sending them pictures of that crap."

"Why do you care so much?" She sounded so confused. She sounded so tired.

"Why do I care? I don't but that's exactly how my sister died and I refuse to watch someone else throw everything away like that. She needed to pay for college and she decided to become a fucking prostitute. One day, she was raped, soon after, kidnapped and murdered by the same person. And she never had anything to show for it. Never payed off her debts and loans. Never changed her life. She died completely unhappy." He looked down and scowled to no one but himself. Grabbing Wendy's phone and unlocking it, he clicked on the notification and deleted each contact, one by one. Next, he deleted the account and app, blocking it from re-downloading. He entered his contact into her phone and saved it under "Romeo".

"What are you doing now?" Then, he deleted each and every nude he could find on her phone; however, left the one picture of them together in the selfie she took.

"Saving you from a future filled with regret. Thank me later." Finally, he checked around for any note of how much the hospital bills costed. Photos? No. Memos? No. Notes? Yes. On the note was written many different expenses due, payed, and what not. Wow. That really was expensive. Opening his phone alongside hers, he wasted no time in sending her the amount of money she needed. He locked both phones and placed hers down. Sitting down nearby her, Romeo sighed. "You have to learn to take better care of yourself. The life all of us are leading is unhealthy in many ways and we all realize it. But you should never go out of your way to make it worse. Especially not make yourself more unhappy." He said, mellow as he glanced at the small pale lines that littered the insides of her wrists. "It's never worth it." Wendy glanced at him appreciatively. "Don't get me wrong, blue hair. I still hate you and as far we know, we are all still enemies. Even if it's just for the time being. I will kill you if I need to and I will not hesitate to put a bullet in the heads of any of those idiots downstairs, either. You mean nothing to me and you never will. But. You helped me realize something about my sister. I was able to see her situation from a perspective I could never understand until now and unless I met you. I appreciate that so I'm going to untie you and leave. However, if you run, I'm going to slice your neck open, am I understood? Take better care of yourself, blue hair."

"I have a name."

"Yeah? Do you now?" He raised an eyebrow sarcastically. "What is it, then?" His voice was bland and close to uninterested with his response.

"Wendy."

"Ah that makes sense... Wendy... has a nice ring to it." she wouldn't deny it, the way he said her name made her tremble in excitement. Maybe she was already trembling but she loved it regardless. The way he said it (even though it was only her name and held no meaning), it felt so special and different; no one had ever said her name the way he did. It never "rang" until he made it ring. "So Wendy," he said, grabbing her once last time to shove her out of his way. "Don't fuck up your life, you only get one of them." Just before he could close the door in her face, she grabbed it weakly, the pain in her back still fresh and threatening to make her collapse on the spot.

"Will I ever see you again?" She inquired, voice quiet and body aching despite her efforts to calm herself down. He was taking too long to respond, her back seared.

"Hopefully not." He grabbed the door handle and kicked her hand out of the way; she stumbled to the floor and barely managed to catch herself as she looked up. "Right?" And the door slammed shut in front of her, just inches from her face. Wendy sat on the floor for several long moments in thought before finally standing to her weak feet. She grabbed her phone and felt bile rising to her throat as she stared at the unbelievable amount of money that was transferred to her. Her pictures? All gone. The app? Also long gone. She gasped and slouched against the wall, a hand holding her head as her eyes remained glued to the screen below.

"Why... did he do that?" And there she stood for many minutes without moving, her hair covering her face like a curtain and her back aching desperately against the wall. All she wanted was to sleep. Just sleep and sleep forever and never see that man again. And never see the countless, endless scars that littered her thighs like needles again. She wanted to disappear. No, that was a lie. She did want to see him again. She thought. "Shit. I can't. I can't ever see him again." Wendy heaved in and out a breath of stress. It was a repeated thought but her next idea was to get her back checked out. It hurt extremely bad and she was certain that if he'd gone a few more times, her vertebrae would begin to deteriorate.

BANG

BANG

The loud gunshots didn't echo in Wendy's ear twice. Surely it was just the others fucking around with their guns. Nothing ever happened here. The most was that invasion but that was once in a blue moon.

With Natsu

"Who are you?" Natsu demanded with a glare in his eye. "Remove your hoods and I'll consider letting you survive."

"How about this."

clack

"Put down the gun and I'll consider letting you survive." A deep voice spoke behind him. Natsu paused, not moving from his position. The man had slipped a gun behind his head and likely another one to Jellal's. He was becoming increasingly uncomfortable under this strangely familiar person's barrel and gaze. "I told you to drop the guns, I won't repeat myself again. I'm going to kill you and your buddy over here if you don't drop your weapons, right now." Natsu dropped his hand to his side but didn't let go of the gun— instead he gripped it tighter. I will not back down.

"Who are you?" Natsu asked. The man grinned to himself and switched his gaze between the two men.

"That's not something you should concern yourself with. Try not to think about it too hard or you'll pop a blood vessel." This time, Jellal dropped his gun to his side and turned to face the man with no fear in his eyes. He smirked at finding the hood covering the man's face. The only thing showing being his tattoos and toned limbs. Under his shawl, there were weapons quite obviously sticking to his abdomen and thighs.

"Pop a blood vessel? You know..." he looked up and down at the man. He seemed nearly as strong as him. But Jellal had things he didn't, he could tell simply by the way he stood. He was giving everything away without even realizing it. His hand? Wrong position. Even if he shot Jellal from point blank range like how he could right now, he would miss. And if he didn't, Jellal knew that he would survive. His stance was completely unbalanced. He was sure he could push the man down with his finger in that very moment if he wanted to. But he didn't. Because shot wounds stung and always ended up being a nuisance. Jellal tilted his head back to stare at the man; as they were almost the same height but Jellal had a few inches on him. The small difference mattered infinitely. He was lucky he'd spent years training until he contemplated giving everything up. "Out of everyone on earth..." he silently reached behind his thigh and and pulled out a desert eagle. "People like you are the kind I hate the most. Those who try to give crappy speeches for less than no reason. Those who put themselves at the top of the world with delusions that they can always get what they want. That's who you are, isn't it? Or maybe I just don't get it— I wonder." He might get in trouble for using this gun. He didn't care. He pointed the weapon indiscriminately at the man's gut.

clack

The blue haired man clicked his teeth, sarcastically disappointed. "But I guess you should try not to think too much about it either, right? This isn't a big deal, we all have to get passed the pain at some point. Whether it be countless deaths or a stubbed toe." He raised the gun higher up to meet the man's head. He would not miss. "When I was little that's always what they told me when something went wrong. Just try not to hold anything against me, okay?" The man recognized the silver pistol immediately and dropped everything without a thought. His hands lifted next to his head. "After all. You are the one who entered my building and pointed your fucking weapons at the commander. The audacity disgusts me. And you know— I could shoot you this very second. I could kill you with my bare fucking hands and not think a single thing of it. But I won't. And do you know why?" The man didn't answer. "It's because you aren't worth it." The man's eyes widened beneath his shawl; it took everything in his power to not attack Jellal out of rage. "You are the one who put yourself and your buddies in this position. You are the one forcing my hand. So do you understand now?"

"Shut up." The man spat, looking down and away.

"What?" Jellal questioned, in disbelief. And suddenly, he laughed. He began laughing hysterically and all but the unconscious foreigners on the floor stared at him with concern. "Did you just tell me to shut up?" He chuckled at the memory.

"Jellal wait!!! Please!!!!" Wendy came sputtering down the stairs and landed on her knees in front of the vice commander. Her head hit the floor, hands cupped together below her. "Please, sir. Spare his life." She choked out, sobs wracking through her body. The man stared in shock at the woman on the floor. Begging for him. His hand clenched painfully at his sides and he gritted his teeth.

"Are you a fucking idiot?" The man asked her, eyebrows scrunched together at his nose. "Get off the fucking ground!!!!" He yelled. She must have been insane. "What the hell are you doing!!??? I don't want your protection!!!!"

"Lima. Are you going against my decision? You realize I can fire you for insubordination; I'm sure I discussed this with you." Wendy didn't move an inch.

"Yes sir. I realize. But just this once, I beg you. I cannot back down." The only sound for a moment was the angry curses of the man.

"What connections do you have to him?" Jellal asked.

"None, sir."

"I swear to god, I talk to you once and this happens." The man snarled with a voice full of annoyance.

"If you keep you mouth shut, maybe this can end alright for both of us." Wendy retorts. Jellal looked at Natsu for a moment and the pink haired man turned away.

"Listen, guy. Your buddies are out of here. But if you even attempt to escape at any time, I will kill you. Am I understood?" The man nodded. Wendy released a breath of relief she didn't know she was holding.

His entourages were booted far away from the building and stripped of any items they had. Be It gum wrappers or newly sharpened daggers.