When Happy finished reciting what happened, the guild rioted yet again. They yelled about how stupid it was. They yelled about how they were going to save Lucy themselves, and a few of them even ran towards the doors.
Happy, Gray, Levy and Erza, however, didn't move. They stood still amongst the chaos and commotion of the guild, the guilt and pain still swimming around in their stomachs.
So it was only these four who saw Master Makarov, who'd been watching the scene unfold from the balcony above, slowly make his way to the bar.
He gently pushed Gray aside, and climbed up on to the counter. Then, in a flash, he grew to five times his normal size, stretching out an arm and blocking off the door with a large menacing fist.
"Listen up brats!" He boomed, his voice shaking the guild. The riot stopped abruptly, everyone turning to listen to their master. When he was sure he had everyones full attention, Makarov shrunk back down to his normal size. From his spot on the bar, he made his speech.
"I understand, how you are all feeling." He began, his voice calm and reasonable. "Hurt, confused, worried, maybe even a little betrayed? Abandoned, perhaps? I understand the temptation to run to her rescue, to go get her back. I too, wish for Lucy's safe return."
In the guild, you could hear a pin drop.
"However," Makarov continued, "we must try to understand, and respect Lucy's decision. She is a Fairy Tail wizard, and one of the smartest ones, may I add. We must trust, and believe in her abilities. We must have faith in Lucy, that she knew what she was doing, and is strong enough to save herself if it becomes dangerous. By assuming she requires rescue or has made a poor decision is a rude and disrespectful assumption. I'm aware, we are all hurting due to this…loss of sorts. Some are hurting more than others." He said with a glance at the three mages and Happy lined up below him. "But we believe in Lucy, and respect her decision to leave us. Because she is a Fairy Tail wizard, and she is strong."
Makarov threw his hand up in the air, using his index finger and thumb to create the known Fairy Tail symbol.
"Lucy will return! That, I believe. But until she informs us otherwise, we let her complete this personal mission herself. Because she is family, and we believe in her!"
The guild let out a cheer of approval. Though there was mistrust and skepticism in certain mages eye, but they knew better than to oppose Makarov.
Erza nodded in agreement with the master, but there was still a heavy lack of emotion in her eyes.
Levy still seemed a little anxious, but wore a prideful smile nonetheless.
Gray looked a little mad, but Happy thought that was just his normal face. And though Happy was trying to believe in Lucy, he couldn't help but wonder if she really would come back on her own. And he couldn't shake the feeling that leaving her to fight her father alone was a bad idea.
Plus, he really wasn't looking forward to telling Natsu this news, that the Guild was prohibited from helping her.
Then, he had a thought.
'Maybe it'd be pointless anyway, if Natsu can't persuade Lucy to come back, what could anyone else in the guild do?' Happy looked up at the Master to voice this concern, but found the Master had that faraway look in his eyes. One he often got when he was deep in thought, or captured by concern. For a man who believed in Lucy so, he didn't quite scream confidence.
Happy thought it best not to disturb the man.
"Someone should go tell Natsu about all this." Levy said. Erza, Makarov, and Levy's eyes all fell on Happy and Gray.
"What, why are you all looking at me? Happy is perfectly capable of going himself. It's not like Flame-brain likes talking to me anyway!"
"Happy shouldn't go alone." Erza pointed out.
"And you have known Natsu the longest…" Levy reasoned.
Gray looked to Makarov for rescue, but he was gazing into the distance aimlessly once more.
"Tch, fine, whatever." Gray gave in.
"Thanks Gray! I really didn't want to go alone." Happy thanked the ice mage.
"Whatever, it's not like I want to go." He mumbled.
"Hey, Gray! Can you take this to Natsu for me please?" Mira asked sweetly, approaching with a large picnic basket full off food. "I'm assuming he hasn't been feeding himself properly, and since Lucy can't pop in and check on him, could you make sure it gets to him?"
"Sure thing Mira." Gray took the basket from her, and gave a short wave, before leaving the guild, Happy once again perched on his shoulder.
At first, after Makarov's hopeful speech, the guild had gone back to its usual volume and energy. But it dwindled. And by the time Happy and Gray reached the door, silence had covered the guild once more, like a cold, unwelcome blanket.
"Open, gate of the…cow? Ugh, no thats not it. Open gate of the maid girl! Come on, dammit!" Natsu threw the keys at the couch. He'd been trying to get a spirit to appear all day. But he couldn't seem to get the words right. Plus, he didn't have a contract. But he needed to try, and try he had. Over, and over, and over again. Knowing it wouldn't work hadn't stopped him, but when it came down to it, he couldn't remember half the spirits names. Let alone what Lucy said to call them out.
"Come out already!" Natsu screamed at the keys resting on the couch. "I know you can hear me! Stop hiding! Open thy gate or whatever! UGH!" He threw a punch at his wall. Adding to the collection of holes he'd made due to his anger and frustration. There were five holes now, and Natsu wasn't sure the wall would remain standing for much longer.
He pulled his fist from the wall, and shrunk down onto his knees. He placed his forehead against the walls cracked surface.
"Please, open the gate, you're the only ones who can tell me about Lucy." Natsu begged, speaking to the wall, his back to the couch where the keys rested. Natsu may not have listened to Lucy most of the time when she blabbed about her keys, a choice he now deeply regretted, but he knew this much: The spirits lived in a different world, but they could still see everything happening in this world. They could see Lucy. They could tell him if she was alright. But Natsu couldn't get a damn gate to open in the first place.
He slowly rose to his feet and trudged over to the couch. He gently picked up the keys to make sure they hadn't been damaged when he threw them. Feeling drained, he laid down on the creaky couch and cuddled the keys to his chest. Noting in disappointment that Lucy's scent faded from the keys a little more with each passing day.
"Tell me she's okay." Natsu whispered to the keys, but nothing changed. Anger flashed through him, and he had the impulse to lash out again, but held himself back. Not wanting to break the keys in his fury. He instead curled on himself, hugging the keys to him even tighter, and tried to fall asleep.
Just as he shut his eyes, there was a knock on the door. Natsu groaned, not having the energy to open his eyes and go answer.
"Natsu? I'm coming in okay?" He recognized the voice as Happy.
"You better not be dead or anything." A voice deadpanned.
Natsu buried his face in the pillow and groaned again, louder this time. 'Why'd he have to bring the stripper.' Natsu thought grumpily.
"I'm gonna take that groan as an okay to come in!" Happy chimed.
He heard the door open, and light flooded the dark house. He buried his face deeper in the cushions to block the light, curling up a little more. He heard Gray's voice first.
"Shit." Gray thought aloud. He had expected Natsu to be upset, probably angry, in bad shape, but not this bad. Natsu just looked, broken. The wizard was curled up on himself, his body sinking into the couch, his face buried deep into a pillow. All you could see was his navy blue outfit and a small tuft of pink hair. He was hugging something tight to his chest, and Gray had a feeling he knew what it was before he even saw it.
Natsu looked like a hurt puppy.
"He's even worse then when I Ieft." Happy remarked sadly.
Gray exchanged a fearful glance with Happy, neither really sure what to do or say to Natsu. Gray was exceptionally bad a dealing with emotional situations, and he knew Natsu was even worse.
'Who's great idea was it to send us boys to deal with this again?' Gray wondered. Then again, the only girl Natsu would ever really talk about his feelings with was…well, Lucy. And she was the whole reason Natsu was upset in the first place.
Gray cleared his throat, approaching the couch, he gently set down the picnic basket on the coffee table.
"Have you…uh…have you gotten off that couch yet today?" He asked quietly.
Natsu raised his head to look at him, something close to anger in his eyes.
"Yeah." Natsu replied, his eye's flickering over to the wall behind Gray. Gray followed his gaze, to discover the five fist-sized holes that littered the wall.
"O-oh." Gray sputtered, "Well, that's, uh, something? I guess?"
"We brought you lunch!" Happy sang, trying to cheer Natsu up. He flew over and sat on the picnic basket.
Gray happily went along with this change of topic. "Yeah, Mira made it for you." The ice mage hesitated, choosing his next words carefully. "She's worried about you, you haven't seemed…great lately."
Gray was mentally slapping himself in the face. Wow he was bad at this.
Slowly, Natsu pulled himself up into a sitting position, revealing what he was holding. Gray inhaled sharply
Lucy's keys.
Though it was exactly what Gray had expected, it still sent a wave of sadness through him.
"Did you guys come for a reason?" Natsu grunted.
"We're worried about you Natsu! Everyone is!" Happy cried, flying in to snuggle up to Natsu's chest.
Gray hated the whole scene. He hated losing Lucy. He hated seeing his best friend so broken. He hated seeing Natsu sitting in a dark, musty house with messy hair and grey under his eyes. He hated how even when he smiled as Happy cuddled him, it was only a shadow of his usual grin. What had happened to the pink haired pyro who greeted him with a confident grin and a fist to the jaw?
The whole thing made Gray want to go drag Lucy back again just so Natsu, so that everything, would go back to normal. Quiet Natsu was awful. And Gray decided he much preferred the version of Natsu that made him want to punch the fire mage in the face.
The empty smile on Natsu's face vanished as he met Gray's eyes.
"Something happened." Natsu stated, averting his eyes to the picnic basket. "That's why you're here."
Gray nodded silently.
"Is it about Lucy?" Nastu asked, his stare burning into Gray.
"Uh, yeah, it is actually." Gray admitted. To Gray's surprise, Natsu didn't freak out. He simply reached into the picnic basket, pulled out a sandwich, and looked back to Gray.
"You planning on telling me?"
"You aren't gonna like it." Gray stated blatantly, seating himself on the coffee table.
Natsu took an aggressive bite out of his sandwich. "I wasn't expecting to."
So Gray explained how the Guild rioting lead to Makarov's big speech. And how they were now strongly encourage to stay out of Lucy's business and 'respect her decision'.
As Gray spoke, Natsu petted Happy, who had curled up in his lap. The fire mage stayed silent the whole time, but it was easy to tell he was less than pleased with the orders.
Gray finished his story and shrugged. "Thats it, I just thought you'd want to know."
Natsu had long since finished is sandwich, and at the very least, Gray was happy his friend was eating.
"It's bullshit you know." Natsu grumbled. "Gramps is just as worried as the rest of 'em, he just doesn't want the guild to cause any more trouble."
"Can you blame him?" Gray asked.
Natsu hastily shook his head and ran a hand through his hair.
"Thanks for telling me Gray."
Gray was feeling less than comforted by this interaction. 'He's too calm. I think i'd rather he be punching a wall or something, so i'd know he's not bottling it all up.'
"Hey, are you okay?" Gray asked, standing from his seat on the coffee table, "Like, actually okay, not just barely breathing."
Natsu looked Gray in the eyes, and laughed. It was a hollow, cold, hysterical laugh. He laughed for almost a minute straight before he calmed down, his face going stoic again.
"I'll be okay, when Lucy is back home." Natsu deadpanned.
"You know Makarov's rule applies to you too right?" Gray couldn't help but smirk, for he already knew Natsu's response to this.
"Gramp's rules don't mean crap if he can't enforce 'em. Besides, I wasn't there when he announced it, so how should I know to stay away from Lucy?" Natsu shrugged nonchalantly, and for a brief second, Gray got a glimpse of that cunning Natsu grin he knew so well.
"You never know when to quit, do you?" Gray teased, rubbing his forehead with his hand.
"Oh, but you do?" Natsu snapped back.
"That's fair." Gray shrugged. He didn't care if Natsu insulted him, it seemed to make the mage feel better, and that was all Gray cared about. But the happy mood promptly disappeared.
"I can't go back anyway, it'll put her in danger." Natsu whispered miserably. "It feels like I can't do anything Gray."
Gray winced at the quick mood swing. They were back to the emotional stuff, and Gray was no more confident in his abilities than before.
"We all feel useless Natsu, don't give up." He tried his best to sound encouraging.
"You're shit at making people feel better." Natsu criticized sarcastically.
"Hey! I'm better than Happy!" Gray gestured to the blue cat, who had fallen asleep halfway through Gray's explanations.
"Whatever you say, stripper."
Gray simply rolled his eyes, but felt a little pride at getting Natsu happy enough to use that nickname he hated.
"Night Natsu, take care of yourself." Gray said with a casual wave as he opened the door to the house.
"Night, and…thanks, or whatever." Natsu muttered.
Gray smiled and shut the door.
He looked up into the sky, at some point the sun had set, and the stars shined brightly.
He though of Lucy, how he missed her. Losing her was like losing his annoying yet lovable little sister. Gray wondered what she was doing right now.
"You'd better be okay Lucy, for Natsu's sake."
Lucy screamed.
She kicked and thrashed, attempting to free herself form the mens hold. But despite her best efforts, they're grips never weakened.
They hadn't bothered to blind fold her. They had simply tackled her in bed and tied her ankles and wrists together, which could only mean one thing. Lucy wasn't being taken somewhere secret, she probably wasn't even leaving the house.
This was Jude's doing.
"Let me GO!" Lucy screeched desperately. The ropes were far too tight and she could feel them blistering her wrists and ankles. Panic filled her chest, her heart pounded, and she couldn't see straight, making it impossible to identify the men who were carrying her.
"Why are you doing this?" Lucy panted.
"Just following orders, Princess." A deep voice sneered.
"Shut it Cobra, don't give her any information you idiot." A whiney voice responded.
"Would you boys stop bickering and get her down to the dungeons already?" demanded a voice Lucy identified as a woman.
'The dungeons. I'm going to the dungeons.' She wanted to cry, but she refused to give up that easily. Using all the strength she could manifest, she pulled her legs up, and kicked the man carrying her legs in the stomach. He let out a grunt and dropped her legs. She quickly stood and swung her elbows up, feeling them make contact with the man behind her.
She heard a sickening crack and felt something warm splash on her arm. 'Blood.' She turned to see the man she had hit stumbling back, a hand over his nose, which was gushing blood.
"Bitch! Where did that strength come from?" He hissed. The man had spiky, brownish-red hair, and a long scar running down his right eye, sealing it shut.
Lucy quickly realized she didn't have much time to observe, and she turned to run, but spun around only to hit another person. She looked up to see white hair and a devious smile.
"So you're a fighter, huh princess?" The woman sneered. Then her fist met Lucy's jaw with a loud snap. Lucy's world tilted, and she hit the hard floor with a thud.
"How disappointing, I guess you are just a weak little damsel in distress after all." The woman snickered.
Lucy's vision went dark.
When she woke, the ropes had been replaced with chains.
Her ankles were now chained to the floor, and her arms chained to the wall. She was in a dank, wet dungeon cell. She had known the dungeons were there, buried deep under the Heartfilia estate, but she had never seen them with her own eyes.
And now she was a prisoner in them.
A prisoner in her own home.
Lucy pulled at the chains, shaking and rattling them. She had to escape, she couldn't die here. She felt a dull pain on her jawline, and she knew there was a nasty bruise there.
'What would Natsu do?' She thought calmly, looking around the cell for anything to help. But she saw nothing but a dead rat in the corner. A shiver ran down her spine. She was trapped. she couldn't melt the chains, or freeze and shatter them, nor could she summon a sword to cut herself out. Plus, she didn't have her keys.
Once again, Lucy was useless.
"Dammit." She gasped, hanging her head in exasperation.
"Giving up already?" A calm voice taunted.
Lucy's head snapped up, straining to see through the darkness. But her sight wasn't really necessary, she would know that voice anywhere.
Sure enough, out of the shadows, stepped Jude.
She ripped at her chains, in attempt to get closer to the bars, like a starved dog trying to bite their food.
"Let me out, Father." She demanded angrily.
"Tell me the location of your keys."
"No."
Jude shrugged, "Then I'm afraid I can't let you out." He paced in front of the bars that separated them. "Honestly Lucy, you have such a need for dramatics. I really didn't want to do this. You gave me no other choice. I gave you time, and a reasonable deadline. But your time ran out. Had you just handed over your mothers keys you wouldn't be locked up like this. This is your own doing, not mine."
Lucy had heard this before, and she wasn't putting up with it this time.
"Right, it's my fault that you're a monster." Lucy growled.
Her father ignored her comment. "I will give you one last chance." He said, turning to clutch the iron bars and glare at Lucy. "Tell me where the keys are."
"Over. My. Dead. Body." Lucy snapped.
Jude let go of the bars and unlocked the cell door, he swung it open.
"I leave this in your hands." He said to the shadows.
Three figures entered the cell. Two of whom Lucy recognized. The girl with the white hair and the man whose nose she had busted. She assumed the other man with the blonde hair and long nose was the one she had kicked in the stomach.
"We'll get you the information in no time, sir." The white haired girl promised, pulling out a whip. The one with the scarred eye twirled a syringe on his finger, and the one with the long nose juggled knives so quickly Lucy only saw blurs.
Lucy's heart plummeted as she realized what was happening. She looked past the figures to her father, who was locking the cell back up.
"Mother would be disgusted with what you've become." Lucy yelled fiercely.
She saw it in Jude's eyes as he snapped. The usual facade of calm was broken and in its place was pure fury.
Lucy had won, it was a short and small victory, but that was all she had lately.
"Make it painful." Jude instructed the three people in her cell.
"Gladly." The white haired woman grinned sadistically.
Jude stormed off.
"Who gets the first bite Angel?" The scarred man asked.
"Mind if I take it?" The long nosed one asked.
"She's all yours, Racer." The woman who Lucy now knew as Angel granted.
Lucy felt her elation from defeating her father fade as Racer approached her with three knives in hand.
Then, all Lucy felt was excruciating pain.
Hey look, the train has finally left procrastination station! Things are starting to get intense so strap yourself in! I apologize for the wait, I am currently in the middle of my exams so things are kinda stressful, but I managed to get this done as a way of avoiding studying, so thats good? I guess?
Side note: Can you tell Gratsu is my all time fav Brotp?
Warning: The upcoming chapter will include graphic depictions of violence. (I will put this warning at the start of chapter 6 as well.)
Thank you to anyone and everyone who has, followed, favourited or left a lovely review, on this story! :)
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