Oho! Updating on time for once. This is one of my favorite chapters. Beware: blood and gore ahead!

rated: M (blood and gore in this chapter)

summary: In a world of underground fighting only the strong survive, abiding by the rules of kill or be killed. In the Ring, a feeble emotion like hope is all it takes to destroy you. And yet it exists– and those who hold onto it play a dangerous game. But once you enter into the Ring, it will never let you go.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Kidney Punch

an illegal punch in the lower back

Lucy twisted her hands nervously together, her heart hammering as she shut the door to her car. On the passenger side, there was a box of a dozen donuts, glazed to perfection. Gajeel would recognize the bribe a mile away.

And if that didn't work, she had a back up plan.

"Why did I have to take backseat to a bunch of donuts?" Levy grumbled when she unbuckled herself and climbed out of Lucy's car. She seemed to think better of her question and she glanced at the precinct. "Better yet, why did I have to come at all?"

Lucy just gave her friend a sly smile and winked at her. "I'm just buttering him up before I ask him for a favor."

Normally, the implication that she was being used to bribe Gajeel would have had Levy's face flaming a hundred different shades of red. But right now she wasn't rising to the bait Lucy was dangling in front of her. Her eyes were dark with worry, teeth biting at her lips in a nervous habit she had whenever she began to get worked up. It was one Lucy herself shared, probably from hanging around Levy too much.

"Lu...you already gave Gajeel the DNA sample you got from Salamander, he can't make the results come back any faster." Levy took the donuts from Lucy even despite her uncertainties.

"But maybe they came back today," Lucy insisted (just like she had the days before), locking her car as she walked off towards the police station. Levy followed, resigning to her fate.

They found him at his desk, for once.

It seemed he didn't need much introduction once he saw Levy approaching him with a box of donuts and Lucy lurking behind her.

"You can save your introductions, I already ran the test." Gajeel gave Lucy a dry look. "Bribery wasn't needed, Salamander is part of the case, all right? I put in a rush order when I sent in the sample."

He smirked at the shocked way Lucy's mouth dropped open, using the opportunity to sneak a hand into the box and swipe one of the pastries from Levy. "I love stereotypes sometimes."

Lucy leaned forward eagerly, her eyes wide as she spotted the file on his desk, reaching out for it instinctively. Too slow for Gajeel's quick hands, he snatched the file and held it just out of her reach. A huff of annoyance blew a lock of blonde hair from her face.

"We got a hit in the missings person's database," Gajeel said slowly, his explanation more agonizing than reading the file would have. "We've got a name."

There was something in the way Gajeel was frowning that had Lucy's shoulders tensing up. He was holding something close to the vest, something he didn't want to share. Lucy's reporter instincts flared, and she grabbed a chair that was situated on the side of his desk to sit down. Levy dropped herself right on top of Gajeel's desk, a donut snatched as her prize.

"If I tell you this name, you have to give this some space." Gajeel's grip tightened on the folder. "This is getting dangerous for you. Leave the rest to the police, Lucy."

She tensed further - first name basis never boded well.

Her grip tightened on the edge of the table, her eyes meeting Gajeel's fearsome gaze but not flinching away. Seeing he wasn't going to get a promise out of her one way or another, Gajeel breathed out through his nose.

"Natsu Dragneel," he answered, the words Lucy had craved for over fifteen years finally brought to light. "That's the brat's name."

"Natsu Dragneel," Lucy breathed those words out, testing them out on her tongue and imagining him in her mind's eye. The name matched the face, and her heart fluttered as she suddenly was that much closer to knowing who he was.

She swallowed, frowning a bit as the name 'Dragneel' sparked a memory somewhere buried deep down inside. Something her father had watched maybe?

"Where do I know that name from?" she asked out loud. "Dragneel…?"

Gajeel grunted, his fingers flicking open the folder and drawing out a few clippings of a newspaper. "His dad was a hotshot pro fighter. They called him the Fire Dragon King or somethin' like that."

Taking an article from him, Lucy lay eyes on Salamander's - Natsu's - father.

It was a photo that must have been taken right after a fight, with him in his gear and obviously spent, but even on the old picture the man seemed to burst with energy. She couldn't help the way the corners of her mouth pulled upwards. They had the same smile.

He had red hair, long and tied back in a low-hanging pony tail. His hair wasn't as wild as his son's, but he showed that same boundless energy that seemed to jump right off the page. They looked alike, the same sharp eyes, the same smile, and defined jaws. Igneel looked like a professional fighter, but held none of that hardness that seemed to set into the fighters in the Ring.

Igneel looked like he enjoyed his sport, practicing his art. From the article she was shown, it looked like he was a champion, having won higher levels more than once.

Lucy flipped through the clippings, her eyes stilling on a single image that made her heart burn like a smoking coal. Igneel's head, thrown back in laughter and his arm stretched out at his side - and balancing on his father's arm was Natsu.

Lucy's breath caught, her thumb lightly tracing the yellow paper, looking at how proud they both looked. Natsu sat on his dad's arm, who lifted him into the air with ease, while the little boy held a huge championship belt over his head. His face was split from cheek to cheek in a brilliant smile and the belt looked larger than his entire body as he struggled to lift it over his head.

They looked so happy.

But then Gajeel's earlier words penetrated, and Lucy felt that warmth in her chest fade into something icier.

His dad was a hotshot.

The past tense was not wasted on Lucy, and her eyes shot up to Gajeel's face, who was looking away. No doubt he was wrapped up in his own thoughts, remembering when he had gotten out.

"Gajeel," Lucy's voice was hoarse, "please tell me you mean he retired when you say he was a professional fighter."

Gajeel startled slightly, turning his head towards her. He didn't have to answer.

Lucy swallowed, her tongue feeling thick and dry in her mouth. When she nodded, it was barely noticeable. Natsu's father, the man he had so proudly told her about, whom he had talked about with so much passion and longing… he was dead.

"How long?" she asked, voice barely above a whisper. She desperately tried to keep her voice steady. But she couldn't help picturing Natsu's happy face crumbling, the last of his hope and drive snuffed out.

"Fifteen years," he answered reluctantly, avoiding her eyes. The file lay safely in his lap, and he showed no signs of handing it to her.

"Are you saying…oh god," she breathed as the pieces fell into place. "They took Natsu, and killed his father."

Grimly, Gajeel nodded. "Which is exactly why from now on, you stay out of this."

"I want to see the file."

"No."

Lucy sucked in a breath and released it through clenched teeth. "Why not?"

There was something he was not telling her, and from the look on his face, it was nothing good. Lucy's stomach clenched uncomfortably. But she needed to know.

"Please, Gajeel," she asked, her expression gentle.

Gajeel's eyes flashed towards her, his face unyielding. Normally by now he would have caved to her request, but it seemed this time he was holding firm in his decision. Lucy's stomach flopped uncomfortably.

She was not above begging. Lucy had made Natsu a promise the day she cried into his chest, even though she was certain he hadn't heard her muffled declaration through her tears. But she swore she would reunite Igneel and Natsu by any means necessary.

To find out Igneel was dead - it seemed like there was something working against that vow. She knew now there was no way she'd be able to keep good on her promise to Salamand - Natsu, but at the very least she could try to find out the whole story on what happened.

She was saved from begging when Levy slipped the file from between Gajeel's fingers while his full attention was on her.

"Levy! Don't open that!" Gajeel swore, his eyes growing wide with panic as he stood up to try and snatch the file back.

She side stepped him with ease, file already partially opened and her quick eyes finding the information he had tried to keep secret.

But her face was already losing color and her grip on the file went lax.

"Oh my god..." She looked sick, her chest heaving even as Gajeel grabbed it back. Her hands flew up to her mouth, breathing through her fingers in a wet rush. Her gaze flicked to Lucy, and she knew with a sinking suspicion that whatever Levy had seen was beyond description.

"Let me see, Gajeel." Lucy grit her teeth, this time leaving no room for argument.

Still, he hesitated.

"Let her see," Levy agreed, but her eyes moved to Lucy pleadingly. "I know you wanna see, but… you won't like it. Are you sure?"

Lucy simply nodded. Her friends' behaviour was making her uneasier by the second, and she felt almost nauseous as she reached out for the file Gajeel reluctantly extended.

Swallowing hard, and ignoring the urge to shake herself once from head to toe, Lucy opened it.

And almost recoiled.

She hadn't gotten to decipher a single word; her eyes, wide in horror, fixed right on the photo greeting her in the center of the first page.

There was so much blood.

This picture contradicted so much with the ones she had seen only moments ago that it made her want to cry. The happy, carefree man that had carried his son on his arm lay crumpled and twisted on the ground, his contagious grin forever gone, his eyes empty.

Lucy's eyes moved over the crime scene, unwilling to linger anywhere too long. Her spit tasted metallic. It took her a moment to notice between all the bloodshed, but when her eyes fixed on a bloody, unnatural something that attracted her attention before she knew why, Lucy realized she was looking at an arm.

It lay a few feet away, behind his shoulder, and Lucy bit down on her tongue to not gag.

She was no police officer, her eyes not used to seeing such unspeakable horrors.

Her gaze darted back to his shoulder, but she ripped her eyes away from the picture when she noticed the mutilated, frayed flesh that was visible between torn shreds of fabric. Even to her untrained eye, it was clear that this had not been a clean cut.

Closing her eyes for a moment, and hoping they wouldn't see, she tried to collect herself and turned the page. Her eyes flitted over the text, fists clenching at her sides with every word she read.

Igneel Dragneel, a master of secret dragonslaying arts, had been found in two pieces.

"Do you get it?" Gajeel said once Lucy was done looking over the file. It seemed he had not been fooled by her carefully composed mask.

Her sickness was plain on her face for him to see. She had known there was something unusual about this file from the start. But this, she had had no way of predicting.

"Igneel wasn't just a pro fighter, he was top class!" Gajeel smacked his fist against his desk for emphasis. His expression became hooded with memories, his sharp teeth grinding down into his molars. "The same thing happened to Metalicana. And I only found out after I got out!"

Lucy's stomach rolled as she realized just why Gajeel, who was normally so tight-lipped about his past, would bring up his own father now. In the years they had known one another, he had only mentioned Metalicana a handful of times. And they had been brief.

Metalicana was a master in his own rights.

Gajeel had found out about his own father a couple of years ago. Except his father had been shot, his body moved to the side of the road to be put on display.

"See, my old man goin' down the way he did makes sense. Single shot from the back, it was an execution," Gajeel's voice was hard, but shook with a burn Lucy could see ached him to his core. He pushed through it, "But whoever took on Igneel did it for the fun. For the challenge. They did it for sport."

And to make a clear warning to anyone looking into the ring. Lucy shivered, her hand coming up to her right arm, stroking it from the shoulder down to the top of her right hand.

"Who would do something like that?" Lucy breathed, her voice sounding ragged even to her ears.

Gajeel shook his head.

"I only remember rumors of a guy from back then. An enforcer that worked in the Tartaros ring that was said to have a penchant for tearing people apart." Gajeel looked like someone had stepped over his grave. "It was the only time I was ever grateful I was in Phantom."

Lucy swallowed, focusing her entire turmoil and rage into the next question. "Who is he?"

"They called him Acnologia."

Dun, dun, dunnn... More drama unfolds.

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Next time! Chapter 15: Bob and Weave