Hallelujah I can read the reviews! Thank you guys so much. To say thanks I'm posting chapter 11. It's a big one :)
Bunny head cove was indeed shaped like a bunny head with a floppy ear. It would have been adorable, if the darkened waves were not swirling and crashing ominously on the sand as a thick mist trailed around the Sabertooth ship.
"Wait!"
Lucy grabbed Natsu's arm.
"This is obviously, one big trap, and we're gonna be heavily outnumbered, shouldn't we just tell the others?"
Natsu shook his head; "No. We've got to sort this out ourselves, plus I've got you. What could go wrong?" He grinned, flashing his white teeth; Lucy gave him a small smile.
They walked, determined across the beach. A rope ladder, trailed down the side of the ship. Squaring her shoulders Lucy climbed after Natsu. Happy wailed, pitifully in a parrot cage, tied to the main mast. The deck was deathly quiet Lucy gripped Natsu's shoulder tightly and listened hard; all she could hear was the whistling of the wind, the creak of the boat and the crash of the waves against the surf. Taking note of her caution, Natsu edged towards the cage, Happy mewed joyfully at his owner. Two cats landed on the deck; one green and the other a reddish-brown. They hissed at Lucy and Natsu, fur puffed up. Happy spat at them from his cage.
Sting ran across the deck at Natsu, who braced himself to attack back.
"Run Lucy!" Natsu yelled as he dodged Stings fist.
"No! I'm not leaving you behind!" Lucy grabbed the hilt of her Katana.
"Don't worry. I'll be fine…" Natsu kicked Sting across the deck and smiled at her.
"No Natsu! We'll finish this together!" Lucy grinned at him.
"Ahhh!" Lucy shrieked as she was grabbed tightly.
"Let her go! I'll kill you!" Natsu ran across the deck slamming into the pirate holding Lucy.
She crashed onto the deck as the pirate holding he flew into the mast. Lucy coughed looking up at Natsu. She had never seen him in such a rage before. His black eyes burned with an intense fury as he faced Sting. What happened next was blur of fists as Lucy watched Natsu fight with an intensity she had never seen. He was powerful and agile, his anger fuelling his powerful kicks and punches. He drew out two cutlasses slashing at Sting. Lucy sat mesmerized, he's going to win, we can escape.
She gasped as she felt the cold metal against her throat.
"Hey Salamander."
Natsu stopped dead.
"If you don't stop, I'll spill some of your precious Lucy's blood onto the deck." Rogue pushed the blade tighter against her skin, making it sting.
"Natsu don't! You can beat them!" Lucy yelled, struggling against Rogue's tight grip.
"No! Lucy I've got to protect you." Natsu looked at the deck and raised his hands in surrender.
The huge green-haired pirate punched him hard in the stomach. Natsu slumped on the duck spluttering. Lucy watched helplessly as the pirate dragged Natsu to the fore mast. He stripped Natsu of his weapons, before chaining him to the fore boom, leaving him dangling above the deck. Her mind raced in panic. We are dead. What was I thinking? What are we going to do?
Rogue laughed mercilessly in her ear; "Now who's stupid?"
He turned to face her, grabbing her chin. Rogue pulled Lucy to the main mast and strapped her to it. She wriggled against the bonds. He laughed at her struggling, before crossing the deck to Join Sting who spat on the deck, wiping blood off his face.
Sting addressed Lucy sweeping his hat and bowing mockingly; "We welcome you aboard Lady Lucy Heartfilia."
He eyes widened in shock. Oh no! I was supposed to be careful! I'm sorry Makarov…sorry guys…
He grinned evilly and unrolled a wanted poster. There she was, drawn in black ink, just like the one Makarov had shown her. The inscription below wanted her alive and returned to "Admiral Heartfilia of the Royal Navy of Fiore". This was followed by a reward of 10 million Jewel.
She glared at Sting, who laughed in response. "You know we picked this up in Hargeon a month ago. When the Comet was attacked it caused quite a commotion for the Navy. One of its most prized ships had been taken out by the infamous Fairy Tail." Lucy scowled at him.
"Oh, but guess who was on board. The princess of the Royal Navy herself, whose father had reported missing. It seems your sloppy little friends failed to eliminate all of the crew, as one officer reported your capture at the hands of Salamander over there." He pointed viciously at Natsu.
Sting pulled another roll of parchment out of his pocket; "And look what we have here."
Lucy read the next wanted poster; Salamander a.k.a. Natsu Dragneel, wanted alive, to await trial and certain death for the kidnap of Lady Lucy Heartfilia. The reward for Natsu was 20 million Jewel.
She glared; "So you're gonna hand me and Natsu over to my father and pocket the reward money."
Sting nodded, smirking; "Clever girl."
"Sting! You shouldn't be talking to the prisoners! I specifically told you to leave the rest to me after they were captured!"
"S-sorry Captain." Sting stuttered.
A woman with pale skin and long braids in her flowing black hair sauntered onto the deck. Her midnight blue coat glistened in the dusk. She glared at her crew-mates with cruel eyes, outlined with dark kohl. She surveyed the scene smugly, chuckling at Natsu's limp form. She turned to glance at Lucy, her dark eyes hardened. She strode swiftly to the main mast.
She cocked her head to the side and looked Lucy up and down, sneering. "Is this the girl."
Sting nodded, smiling smugly, "Sure is Captain. Christ we can by a new ship with the reward money… Captain?"
The woman stepped forward closer to Lucy. Lucy's breath quickened, she didn't like the cold murderous look in this woman's eyes, not one bit.
"It's disgusting how much you look like her." She spat, slapping Lucy hard across the face.
Lucy spluttered, coughing. Black dots appeared before her eyes.
"Minerva, what's going on?" Sting rushed over to them.
Minerva grabbed Lucy's jaw forcing her to look up.
"Minerva stop! We can't kill her. We won't get the money."
"I don't care about the money! I care about taking revenge on the daughter of the woman who murdered my father!"
Minerva grabbed hold of Lucy's neck, causing her to gasp for air. Sting pulled Minerva off.
"Explain! Now!"
"Let Lucy go." Natsu croaked weakly, his chest heaving. Sting punched him in the gut, causing him to cough up some blood.
"Don't interrupt! Minerva, explain now!"
"Oh Sting you weren't born when this all happened, but as you know when I was a bit younger than you, my father ruled the seven seas. He was unstoppable!" A mad fire was alight in her eyes.
"In my youth I was friends with a Fairy Tail, pirate her name was Layla."
Lucy's eyes widened in shock.
"That's right my dear, I bet she never told you. How sweet. She probably thought she was protecting you from all of this."
Natsu watched in disbelief, his chest heaving.
"Layla was a bit older than I was and she already had a small crew with her friends Aquarius, and Grandine, so she invited me to join. My father was reluctant but allowed me to go. Layla didn't exactly agree with his actions, you see. But, the Navy was leading new attacks on pirates. A war was brewing. Layla believed if we didn't back down, my father would lead us all to Davy Jones locker, with his antics. The royal family was even going to offer the pirates a treaty to stop the violence. Layla wanted my father to agree to the treaty, but he believed it insulting and attacked hundreds of naval ships, staining the sea red with blood. After a particularly terrible battle your precious mother fought my father, wounding him badly. Knowing that he would die she fled.
Minerva grabbed Lucy's hair, pulling her head painfully forward, a cruel smirk curling her lips.
"I met her in Hargeon a few months later, determined to get my revenge. She was pregnant with you! She had gone a fallen in love with the son of the Admiral no less of the Royal Navy of Fiore! Do you know what she did, she begged my forgiveness. She said she would retire from piracy and have you! That bitch she betrayed me! Then she betrayed us all! Leaving us for some navy scum, just cos, she'd let him bed her!"
Tears ran down Lucy's cheeks. She could not tear her eyes away.
"I wasn't going to leave that port empty handed, I attacked her, but then she almost killed me!" There was a mad look in her eyes.
"Look what she did to me with that cursed blade!" Minerva pulled down her blouse below her collar bone revealing a deep pink scar, across the top of her chest.
"Five years later, Makarov's son, betrayed his Crew on Fairy Tail, by trying to stage a mutiny. He caused so much trouble, that your beloved father started the five year pirate purge!"
Lucy was crying quietly now, the ropes holding her arms as her shoulders were racked with heavy sobs.
Minerva smiled mockingly; "Your mother isn't here now though, so there's no one to save you." She brushed Lucy's cheek with a cold hand.
"My mother is dead!" Lucy screamed, her brown eyes glistening in the murky dusk.
"Well then why don't you join her?" Minerva whispered in her ear. The sound of her blade being unsheathed echoed against the tense silence.
A small dagger whistled through the air, landing squarely in Minerva's arm; blood trickling onto the deck and she cursed, looking wildly around.
"Leave Lucy alone!" Wendy clung to the rigging. Minerva smirked at her menacingly.
"You've caused us grief too many times Sabertooth." Makarov said standing on the side of the ship, arms folded.
"This ends now!" He raised his hand in the air, his finger pointing upwards, giving the Fairy Tail salute.
With a loud battle cry Fairy Tail rushed onto the deck and attacked. Gray got to Lucy, cutting her free. She seemed dazed and lost. He wiped the tears from her face as rain began to fall around them.
"Lucy listen to me," He looked at her urgently. "Jump off the ship…Juvia is waiting at the bottom. GO!" He pushed her to the other side of the ship. Stepped up, she grasped the rigging with white knuckles.
Gajeel had unchained Natsu and chucked him overboard. She heard him yell, before hitting the water with a splash. Closing her eyes she dropped. The wind rushed past her, as she felt herself free-fall, her heart in her mouth. As she hit the icy water she gasped in shock.
"Lucy! Lucy! Juvia is going to take you back to the ship now." Juvia stared at her, concern in her blue eyes, her long blue locks, flowing in the water.
Natsu paddled towards them. Juvia grabbed hold of them both.
"Hold onto to Juvia tightly and don't let go."
Suddenly they sped through water, Juvia propelling them both forward to the cove, where the Fairy Tail ship was hidden. Lucy was still in a daze when she was helped onto the deck by Mira. She and Natsu were huddled in blankets. Juvia was hauled up onto the deck, making Lucy do a double-take; Juvia had a tail. She watched as the iridescent blue scales seemed to melt of Juvia's legs, leaving her in a very wet cotton dress.
Juvia giggled; "Juvia is sorry she didn't tell Lucy Juvia is a mermaid. Juvia will talk to Lucy later."
Juvia then skipped down the hatch below deck. Head swimming with the nights events, Lucy was unable to move and watched as two row boats carried the rest of the Fairy Tail crew, back on-board. Smoke was billowing from Rabbit's head cove as Erza landed on the deck, followed by Gajeel and Gray. Gray handed Natsu his weapons and a slightly damp, but very happy Happy. Erza pressed Lucy's weapons into her hands.
"Get some rest Lucy." She murmured softly. "It's been a very tiring day."
Lucy entered the small washroom, drawing the curtain and stripped off her wet clothes. She towelled herself dry and dressed in clean, warm, long-sleeved night-gown, before plaiting her damp hair. Natsu had already changed into dry clothes, but he wouldn't look at her. Happy was purring, nestled up in a bundle of warm blankets.
Lucy sat on the bed, holding her arms, tight around her. They sat in an awkward silence. Natsu was first to break the tension.
"Why didn't you tell me Luce."
Lucy turned away covering herself in the blankets.
"Lucy why didn't you tell me… do-don't you trust me?"
She ignored him, but he pushed her roughly against the wall.
"LUCY!" He yelled, but there was sadness in his black eyes.
She hung her head; "I'm sorry Natsu. I didn't know about my mother, not until now."
"Not that!" He spat, "I meant your father."
"I didn't know how…Makarov told me not to…"
Natsu's face darkened, "So you told the Captain, but not me! I thought we were friends…"
Lucy dropped her head, her eyes brimming with tears. "He already knew…he-he told me not to tell y-you."
"Well guess what Lucy, I trusted you." He tightened his grip on Lucy's shoulders, making her wince.
"But for all I know you could be a little Navy spy."
"I'm not! I promise! I hate my father!" She cried, tears streaming down her face.
"How do I know you're not Lying!" He yelled, back.
"But then I guess that's what we do we lie to each other!"
She sobbed, her tears falling freely down her cheeks.
He sighed; "I didn't tell you the full truth either."
"Look at me Lucy!" She didn't move. He grabbed her chin, their faces inches apart.
"My father isn't missing." He murmured. "He's dead. Thanks to your father!"
She looked up at him brown eyes wide, with terror. He let her go.
"I'm sorry Natsu. I-I didn't know."
"That's real funny Lucy. You don't seem to know a lot, about yourself, or your parents." He laughed coldly.
She slumped on the floor, as he paced the small cabin.
"My dad adopted me when I was three, I never knew my parents. He raised me, taught me how to fight. We travelled the sea with his pirate crew, aboard the Sleeping Dragon. The crew was made up of Sting, Rogue and Gajeel's adopted parents. My father was good friends with Makarov and Grandine, who had adopted Wendy when she was a baby. It was all good they looked after us kids, cared for us like we were their own. Then when I was seven the purge began."
Lucy sniffled and wiped her eyes on the sleeve of her dress.
"My dad decided we needed to lie low for a bit, so we stayed on this large island, for nearly five years. But in the last month of the purge Makarov's son, sold my dad out to save his own neck. Your dad attacked the island and took us all to the capital of Fiore, to await trial. They couldn't execute a bunch of kids, so they dumped us all in an orphanage. On the 7th of July, Admiral Heartfilia had decreed that the pirates of the sleeping dragon be hanged for their crimes of piracy against the crown." Natsu laughed.
Wendy sobbed softly and burrowed her head into Natsu's chest. He wished he could look away, but he couldn't tear is eyes from his father's limp form, dangling lifelessly from the rope. His deep red hair and become dull in the late afternoon sunlight and obscured his face, no longer cheerful and bright, but cold, with blue un-smiling lips. Tears ran down Natsu's cheeks as he glared at the man responsible. The man smirked coldly back at him, his blonde hair slicked back neatly under his ceremonial admiral's hat.
Gajeel held onto Rogue tightly as the two brothers watched their parent's lifeless forms swaying next to each other, while Sting wailed on Rogues shoulder. Wendy yelped as she was pulled roughly away from Natsu.
"Let Wendy go you asshole!" Natsu aimed a kick at the man, but he was grabbed by another officer.
Admiral Heartfilia smiled coldly, "She wasn't doing as she was told. She needs to see what will happen if she decides to follow the same path as her mother."
Wendy wailed as her head was forcefully turned towards the direction of her Grandine. She whimpered as she watched the pale pink hair flow in the wind, her crying became louder as heavy sobs racked her frail shoulders.
Natsu broke free and ran to Wendy across the platform, holding her close. Admiral Heartfilia grabbed Natsu by his arm and pulled him up off the floor. Natsu flailed his legs and ams, yelping in pain.
"Remember this boy!" He hissed, squeezing Natsu's arm tighter. "If you ever become a pirate. I will hunt you down and then you'll be strung up, just like your precious father." Admiral Heartfilia pointed at Igneel.
"That goes for all you children. Mark my words, I won't let you escape!"
"Then he strung our parent's bodies at the top of a cliff, looking out to sea, a sign of the fate that will befall all pirates if they get caught. They let us go Sting and Rogue ran off and Gajeel led the rest of us to Makarov, who took us in..."
Lucy looked up at his black eyes, that glimmered with tears and sorrow.
"I truly am sorry Natsu" She stood up shakily.
Taster of Chapter 12- Problems are best left un-bottled like rum
Lucy listened nervously outside the door of her parents room. Thunder rumbled ominously outside, as rain hit the window with a bullet-like force.
"I can't believe this..." her father uttered almost painfully.
"Jude please...I-I gave it all up...f-for you, for Lucy, please...I never..."
"I don't want to hear it Layla...I thought I loved you."
Her mother began sobbing, "I love you! Please Jude, I can't take it. I love you even after what you've done..."
Whelp that was depressing. Sorry to the person who hoped Minerva wouldn't turn up. Again keep reviewing and stay tuned K x :)