Erza and the Others
Following the destruction of Klaus' home, Erza had convinced him that it was in the best interests of his health to give them the whereabouts of the slave market. It helped that Natsu and Gray were stood behind her, looking ready to kill him. Lucy had taken the opportunity to change back into her normal clothes, although Happy had pointed out they still showed a lot of flesh and had earned a smack off Lucy for it. Loki had left to take the other slave girls back to Fairy Tail and Erza and the others were well on their way to the slave market. Lucy had updated them on what had happened in the time between her kidnapping by the slavers and her arriving at Klaus' estate. She could give no clue as to what had happened to Wendy as Lucy had been sold first and they had locked her away immediately so she had not seen who had bought Wendy or Carla.
"The woman who is in charge of the slave ship we were brought over on is tough," Lucy said "She will not be a pushover like Klaus was. In fact, she was kinda scary!"
Natsu snorted "No one is as scary as Erza!"
Erza sent him a look that could make a normal person's blood run cold.
"See …" Natsu chuckled "She is scary as hell!"
Lucy laughed, happy to be back around her friends and their bickering but worrying about Wendy and Carla. She just hoped that they had been able to stay together.
An hour later, the group arrived on the edge of the town where the slave market took place. It's streets busy with people from all over the kingdom wandering around and setting up stalls to sell their goods. Gray looked around.
"It looks like we might have come on a day when the market is happening. That might make it easier to find the slavers we are looking for. You would recognise them, right Lucy?" he asked.
"I will never forget them," Lucy said, shivering slightly.
Lucy led the way towards the stage where she had been sold. There were no slaves being sold at the moment but she noticed that the cages where she had been held were full and so it appeared that at some point the market would be happening. She stopped walking and stood staring at the cages and the people huddled inside, some of them no more than children.
"It is not right," she muttered "Look at them, they are so scared and they look like they have given up hope."
Natsu wrapped his arms around her, pulling her close earning a raised eyebrow from Gray in the direction of Erza.
"It is ok Lucy," Natsu said "We are here and we are their hope now. This evil trade in human misery is about to get a shock."
Lucy looked at him "What do you mean?"
Erza walked over to stand next to them, "He means we are taking them all down. We can't put a permanent stop to this but we can make a difference to the futures of these slaves and I will make it my life's work to carry on taking down slavers if I have to. No one should go through what I did as a child."
Lucy looked over at Erza and saw the anger deep in her eyes and she looked at the cages of people. Lucy smiled over at Erza.
"You will not be doing it alone! Once we get Wendy and Carla back, I am sure they will be keen to help us too!" Lucy said.
"You have me too," Gray said "I am sure the rest of the guild will feel the same."
Erza nodded, never taking her eyes of the cages.
"I agree but right now we need to deal with this. Let's cause some mayhem! Be careful no innocent people get hurt!" she said looking at Natsu and Gray.
Natsu nodded and muttered, "They are all profiting off human misery here, no one is totally innocent!"
Erza looked at him until he agreed to not hurt the normal traders and then the group walked forward and into the slave market looking for the slavers who had taken Lucy, Wendy and Carla. A few minutes later, Lucy stopped and moved to stand slightly behind Gray and Natsu. She pointed at a woman standing talking to a group of men.
"That's Marielle. She is the one who was in charge of the group of slavers who sold us." Lucy said.
Erza stood looking at the woman, trying to understand what would make one woman sell another woman into slavery, or any other human being for that matter.
"We need a plan," Erza said "If we go in all heavy handed, people are going to get hurt in the cross fire. It says on that poster that the sale is not until tomorrow so we have time. Let's go find an inn and we will work out the best option."
Natsu and Gray scowled as they had been ready to go in now but the look on Erza's face didn't encourage argument and so they turned and followed Erza out of the market and into the nearest inn. Lucy was looking around all the time worried that someone would recognise her so on the way, they had bought her a cloak with a hood so that she could hide her face and she felt safer once she could hide within the hood, she left it up even in the inn. Once seated the group ordered food and drink and started to plan out what they would do.
"It makes sense that we go in at night as there will be fewer guards and we can hopefully catch the slaver woman off guard and asleep." Erza said.
"Then we grab her and make her tell us where Wendy and Carla went?" Lucy asked.
"And maybe rough her and her men up a bit?" Natsu asked hopefully.
Erza scowled at Natsu "Only if we have to! Right, Natsu and I will take the Slaver. Lucy and Gray, I want you to deal with any other guards and open the slave cages, get the people in them out of here. Once we have the woman, we will regroup outside the village. Natsu can set some buildings on fire to give the slaves a chance to get away in the chaos."
The plan in place, all they could do now was wait for nightfall and hope everything went smoothly.
Wendy and Carla
Wendy had been sitting next to Auboron's seat for what felt like forever but in reality, was probably only a few hours. Every now and then he would lower his hand and stroke her hair or reach down and sniff at her. Every time he did, Wendy had to use every ounce of her self-control not to pull away or show how repulsed she was feeling as she had a feeling that it would not go well for her if she did. The door to the hall opened and a woman walked in, making her way to the front of the room. Auboron looked at her and smiled,
"Narissa, to what do I own this honour?" he asked.
"I came to see who the new girl was that was so important I had to feed another mouth at my place! I figured she must be something special if you wanted me to babysit a girl without putting her to work." Narissa replied.
Wendy started at the woman and realised she was talking about Carla. Without thinking she blurted out.
"Where is Carla? Is she ok?"
Narissa raised an eyebrow and as she did, Auboron moved his hand and cuffed Wendy across the head, knocking her off her cushion to sprawl across the floor. For a moment, Wendy laid on the cold
stone floor stunned, her ears ringing from the blow.
"You will not speak unless you are asked," Auboron roared, his face twisted with anger "Now look what you made me do! Get up girl and get back to your rightful place."
Wendy pulled herself up and dragged herself back to her cushion, her ears still ringing. She managed to get on her knees and Auboron patted her gently on the head.
"Believe me, I don't like to hurt you my pretty but you made me. Do not make me hurt you again," he said turning his attention back to Narissa.
"As you can see, this little one is still quite feisty so I need a way to make sure she learns without having to hurt her, like she just made me do. Next time she speaks out of turn, you are to beat her friend. I can't have my pretty one covered in bruises, now can I?" Auboron smiled.
Narissa nodded "No that would never do, would it?" she asked, slight sarcasm in her voice.
Wendy listened to the conversation in horror. She would need to be careful if she was to protect Carla. At the same time, she had noticed that Narissa did not seem to be scared of Auboron. Everyone around him walked like they were stepping on egg shells, never talking without being asked but Narissa seemed not to care. Wendy glanced over at the woman and saw her looking at her, especially at the guild mark on her right shoulder.
"Well my curiosity is sated so I will return to my girls, we need to be getting ready to open." Narissa said.
With one last look at Wendy, Narissa spun round and walked out of the room heading back to her brothel lost in thought.