Iron in the Stars

AN: Story is my idea, but I do not own anything Fairy Tail.

Chapter 20: Tension

Last night wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. We drank. A lot. Of course we fought a lot as well, but what was to be expected when we were in an unsupervised Guildhall. Well, not truly unsupervised. Laxus was there, but he didn't seem to give a shit about any of the fights. In fact, he did end some of them, but not because we were destroying the Guildhall, but because we were annoying him and made him spill his beer once or twice.

I couldn't wait to get myself a little presentable and see Bunny though. I had to sigh to myself. I've told her a little about the whole mating situation and I knew we were not near that step, but I did know that I wanted to spend the rest of my life with her. I've loved her for a while now and being with her almost every day has just made me love her much deeper. She was everything to me. She was my light, my Bunny. I thought back to the day where we were on the mountainside and I wanted to just rip the heart out of that water slayer. If it wasn't for her, we'd both probably be dead. I vowed to myself that I would always keep her safe, no matter the cost.

I heard a groan coming from the bar and looked over to see that it was Natsu. He looked better than me atleast. It was probably because of the fire inside of him. He probably burned alcohol faster than regular people, hell even other slayers. "You good?" I called softly to him not wanting to speak too loud because my own head was throbbing and because everyone else was still camping in the Guildhall.

He groaned and turned back over to go back to sleep. I silently laughed to myself. It was really early; he probably wasn't ready to get up yet. I looked around to see if anyone else was awake quite yet. With the exception of Laxus not being there everyone had still been asleep. Laxus was the smart one. He probably used his magic to go back home when he knew he was done for the evening. We just drank way too much and passed out where we stood basically. Cocky bastard. It was then that I heard someone upstairs. Perhaps he didn't go home. Perhaps he was awake and in his office.

I groaned as I got up making my way to the staircase. I might as well check on Sting and then check the lightning rod's office. Sting didn't look like his improvement has greatly changed, but I was able to breathe a sigh of contentment knowing that he was getting nourishment in his system and his color was coming back to him. Slayer's were pretty resilient, but he took a bad hit and look pretty bad just days prior. Even if I had a part in it, I was sure glad that he was doing better.

"Laxus, you in here?" I knocked softly on the door only for it to be opened quickly and quietly.

"How are you feelin'?" Like shit. I grunted and shrugged my shoulders to answer his question. He laughed slightly at me, "I'm right there with you. I was thinking about going for a run, but I don't know if I could handle it to be completely honest. I know that Porlyusica is going to be here in a bit and I wonder if she would give us an IV so we could get back together.

"Do you think she actually would, or do you think that she would kill us for even asking?" He looked at me skeptically.

"Most likely the ladder, but we will never truly know unless we ask." We spent the next half hour hanging out in the office drinking water and trying to hydrate so we wouldn't be sick all over the place. I was appreciative when I finally heard her get to the infirmary.

"Good morning doc." She growled at me and gave me a dirty glare. "Okay, I am sorry to bother you, but I was wondering if we could get an IV to rehydrate ourselves." She lifted an eyebrow and looked at us incredulously.

"Do you really think I would allow you to treat your own stupidity? You can work it out yourself stupid humans." I sweat dropped and looked at Laxus for some support. He stepped up to try his turn at bat with the crazy woman.

"Come on, we need to keep on our toes just incase something happens here. We are the strongest support team and you know this isn't something we do very often. Can you please help us out this once? You can always use it against us and if you ever need a favor from us then we can do it no question's asked." She thought about it for a moment or two with uncertainty in her eyes, but sighed in defeat eventually.

"Fine, sit down and I will get you set up, but while you two are here you better not bother me!" We both nodded and sat down quietly relishing in the quiet affair. In only took about twenty minutes for us to feel back to normal and I was completely grateful for the woman's help. When we got down stairs it was still early. I looked at the clock on the wall and it read five minutes after seven. I stretched and heard my muscles groan and body pop in places that felt wonderful.

"How about that run now?" I looked over at Laxus and smiled.

"Yeah, wanna give the girls a good wake up call?" He had a shit-eating grin on his face and ran out the door. I laughed as I followed him. We ran until we saw Fairy Hills in the distance and started to slow down so we can sneak up to the building. I knew that they didn't have the keen hearing, but we didn't know if they were up or outside so we wanted to be cautious in are scaring tactic. We creeped to the one side when I saw Laxus pause and sniff the air. I wasn't sure what he was smelling because I could smell the girls, but I couldn't smell anything particularly strange. He started to walk towards the other side of the building and that's when I caught a faint smell of blood. It wasn't a strong scent so I assumed it was fairly old, but it was there. The closer we got to the other side the stronger it had become. Once we turned the corner my heart dropped. There was a fight here.

The trees were torn apart and Lisanna and Cana were there. I ran over to Lisanna as Laxus ran to Cana. Lisanna's vitals were fine, but it looked like she took a good beating. Cana wasn't much different. "We need to take them to the infirmary and check on the others!" All I could think about was Bunny. She had to be okay. She was a heavy sleeper so she must have still been upstairs. Please Mavis, let her be upstairs.

"I'll get them there. You go upstairs and see what happened." He grabbed the girls and vanished. I ran to the door which wasn't locked and ran the steps three at a time. I got to the room I knew they were most likely sleeping in and barged in concerned because this door was unlocked as well. I looked around the room at the sleeping woman looking at every face. My heart was starting to pump harder than it had ever. Each face wasn't Bunny. I fell to my knees waking up Erza. She looked at my panic stricken face and got up immediately.

"What is it, what's wrong?" She drew her sword in an instant looking for the fight, but there wasn't one. It already happened and I failed to protect her.

"I was hoping you would have been able to tell me what happened. Me and Laxus came by to scare you guys awake, but we found Cana and Lisanna outside beat up." I looked up with unshed tears in my eyes. They would not fall, but that didn't mean that my heart wasn't shattered. "Bunny is missing." Titania gave me a strong hug.

"She is strong, not just physically but in spirit as well. She will be fine. We will bring her home. We will find her. She wouldn't leave you. She loves you." I don't think she even realized how much her words meant to me. I took a deep breath. Breaking down would do no one any good.

"Thanks Titania. I am going to go back to the guild and see what the girls know." I got up to leave and was out before she could even start talking. I did hear her say that she would be right there though. I already knew that they whole guild would help. I ran as fast as I could back to the hall and when I did get there I was slightly out of breath.

"They aren't awake yet. It won't be long though." Laxus must have been waiting for me at the door. I glanced around and it was tense. Everyone was awake now, but it didn't look like anyone was talking.

"What's going on?" It was Natsu's uncertainty that made me realize my own scares. I had no idea what was going on, where Bunny could be, or how to get her back. I looked at Laxus telling him I just couldn't. I knew he was going through the same thing. Fuck, even Natsu was going to be going through the fear. She is kin to two dragon slayers here and I intended to make her my mate. Whoever took her had a whole lot of fight in their future. Fuck that, who ever took her had a death wish. We would kill them.

"We aren't sure. We found Lisanna," he paused when Natsu looked frantic. "She will be fine and we will go see them in a second." Natsu didn't exactly relax, but he took a breath of acceptance and let Laxus continue on. "Like I was saying, we found Lisanna and Cana outside of Fairy Hills. There was clearly a heavy fight with the destruction around, but we have no idea what actually happened." He knew as well as I that telling Natsu about Bunny being missing would be bad. He may even be more protective than me, which is saying something. I've fought against him and know from experience that when tested correctly he could annihilate anything that stood in his way.

"As long as everyone is okay, then it should be okay!" Natsu seemed to be okay, but when he noticed both of us flinch at the part we omitted he growled in warning. "Whose not okay. Where are the other girls?"

"They are coming by in a moment, listen Natsu, we couldn't find Lucy. I know that she is kin; I know that she is a sister to you, but keep in mine she is to me as well. We will get her back. Where ever she is." Before Laxus' words even left his mouth Natsu was all flames. I knew that this was going to be tense. We had to work together though.

"Natsu," it wasn't going to be Flamebrain for this one. I needed him. I needed all of them. "I need you to help me get my mate back." Natsu looked broken for a second before his fire disappeared and he grabbed my shoulder.

"Of course!"

"Where is Lu!" I heard Cana from upstairs and looked over at Laxus before sprinting up the stairs.

"Cana! I'm glad you're okay." It was Laxus that reached the infirmary first. I looked over at Rogue who was sitting on Sting's bed looking at me in pity. I hated that look. "Is there anything I can get you? Do you need any water?"

"Porlyusica already gave me some, but please tell me that you got Lu!" We looked down not wanting to answer her question. Instead I looked up at her.

"Can you tell me what happened?" She started to cry.

"Fuck! I wasn't strong enough to fight with her! Yeah, we heard a noise outside and figured it was you guys trying to play a prank so we went outside to scare you. Instead, there were two guys in cloaks walking around. It didn't seem like they were there for us; it looked like they were just passing by us to go somewhere else. Lu noticed them first and tried to conceal us. The one saw through the enchantment though. It was the one that did that to Sting." She pointed to the other bed emphasizing her point.

Taking a deep breath she continued. "It was when the other man turned around that Lu got defensive though. I guess it was someone she fought before. Some water dragon slayer." I growled at this knowing exactly who this was. I could hear the other slayers in the room do the same. "Well she knocked them out and the crystal guy was impressed. He wanted to collect her and use her in his army he said. She fought against him, but I honestly don't really know what happened after that. I am so sorry that I couldn't help more. I am just so sorry!" Laxus started to hug her tight whispering to her. I turned away to give them a moment. I had no idea what to do.

I turned to Rogue. "Do you have any clue where this guy is at?"

"I wish I did. We could go back to where Sting was taken or back to the forest where the fight happened, but if it was anything like before I couldn't find a trace of a scent from the guy. It would be the blind leading the blind in all honesty. The only one who may know anything is Sting. If we could get him coherent enough to be able to be in his own mind completely I know he would help us." I sighed in frustration. We weren't even close to getting him going again.

"That's why I am here. We need to increase his healing. We will do everything we can." She looked at Rogue. "Not to say we weren't already, but I called a friend who is on their way." We all looked at her confused. "I called Sheirra. I hope that her healing ability with mine and Porlyusica's medicine we can get his mind control to disappear." She smiled softly at us while walking towards me. I tensed at first, but felt her tiny arms wrap around my waist to give me a hug. I dropped to my knee to hug her back. She wasn't a huge fighter, mainly because of her age, but I knew that Lucy is a sister to her as well. She would do anything for her. I just hope that it will be enough and quick enough.

AN: Alright guys, please please please don't be mad at me about the length. I cut it short because I was exhausted. I'm working three jobs now. This and watching some youtube shows are the entertainment in my life. Not that I'm complaining. I am thankful for what I have and what I can do. I have a house, family, love, and work that pays for everything I could need or want so there is no complaining coming from me. Just perspective. I stated in the beginning that I would NEVER quit this story, but it may take me longer to get it out than normal. On the other hand I am going to continue to try and get weekly chapters out even if they are a tad bit shorter.

I know that there was a little confusion about why Lucy was taken and I wanted to address that here and I hope I did. She wasn't taken because she is close to the slayers in the sense that he wants to get to them. She was taken because she kicks ass and was trained by the slayers. Anyway until next time I hope you lovely people have a great week. I will have a Lucy POV in the next 7 days. Promise.

ALSO THANK YOU FOR THE NEW FOLLOWERS, FAVORITES, AND REVIEWS. THEY ARE APPRECIATED