Chapter Six The Cult

Sweat dripped down off Lucy's forehead. The mid-summer sun was high in the afternoon sky and was bearing down on her neck and shoulders like it was being focused through a magnifying glass. The old dusty mountain path they were hiking up never seemed to end, there was always one extra twist, another ravine, more bends in the road. In front of her, Natsu had tied his scarf round his hips and removed his skirt and she knew somewhere behind her Gray wasn't anymore decent.

None of them talked as they hiked, each lost in their own thoughts. The only sound was the constant squeaking of Erza's cart which was laden high with suitcases all strapped down. Chained to the back of the cart and stumbling along behind it was Rory North. Her top was stained a new colour of brown with sweat, the bandages on her shoulder could be seen through the stretched, loose collar. She'd removed her hat and tucked it in the hem of her gym shorts and had pulled up her sleeves somehow. Her arms were bound in front of her and she was being tugged along by carriage so Lucy wasn't quite sure how she'd made the adjustments to her wardrobe. Like the rest of them, Rory North said nothing during their journey up into the rocky mountains. Ever since they'd gotten off the train that morning she'd been entirely silent.

All Lucy could think about was how Rory saved her, and how now she was repaying her shackles. The image of Rory fighting was forever emblazoned into her mind. For the millionth time her brain took her back to that moment in the tree when Rory had looked round at her. For a fleeting second they'd locked eyes, then one of the wolves pounced and sunk its teeth into her shoulder. Lucy winced and shook the image from her mind. She still felt shivers every time she remembered Rory's magic washing over her, the scream, the pure power. Lucy had never experienced someone letting out their magical energy like that before. Like the magic energy itself was a weapon. She intended to ask Makarov about it when they returned.

"Hey Lucy what you looking at?"

Lucy jumped at Happy's sing song voice, flushed, and quickly looked away from where she'd been gorming out at Natsu's back. "It nothing Happy." She said, thankful that the heavy sun and heat excused her blush. "I'm just thinking is all."

Happy caught her tone, the teasing falling from his face and he glanced back at the squeaking wagon. "Did she really save your life Lucy?" He ask, flying alongside her.

Suddenly her mind was back in the tree again. Jaws sank into Rosemary North's shoulder. She fell out of sight, screaming. They'd told Lavender to run. Blood dripping off huge snouts, black soulless eyes. The howls that would haunt her nightmares.

"Yeah." Lucy nodded. "Yeah she did."

When night fell it was like all the heat had been sucked out of the air into the black abyssal sky. Rory shivered against the cool night air. Her bare calves were covered in goose bumps; her black leggings only reached her knees. The Flatland summers often fluctuated between the idyllically mild and hellfire's frying pan. Rosemary's 'home clothes' often catered for both. If it got too hot she could remove her leggings and just wear her loose gym shorts. Her long sleeved top was thin with a collar that often nearly slipped off her shoulder, but if the sun got too much her sports bra underneath would always serve as a suitable top. However up here on the mountain she easily felt the chill of the cloudless night. Only her green floppy hat kept her head warm.

"Here." Rosemary looked up gratefully as Lucy sat down beside her and handed over a bowl of food. "We used your frying pan to cook it, is that okay?" She nodded. It was rather awkward trying to hold the bowl and eat from it with bound hands. In the end Lucy set in on the floor in front of her and watched as Rory slowly devoured the food. Around the campfire the others sat, Titania watching Lucy and Rory over her own bowl, her gaze brooding.

"It's kind of cold back here." Lucy began hesitantly. "You can always come closer to the fire." Rosemary brought the bowl up to her lips and slurped loudly. Lucy carried on, unperturbed. "You know, I never really thanked you for yesterday, back in the woods-"

"Don't mention it." Rory muttered.

"No really I truly appreciate-"

"I said it's okay."

"What you did-"

"You're stilling mentioning it."

"That thing you with the magic and the screaming-"

"This is sounding like a mention."

Lucy huffed. "I'm trying to thank you."

"And I'm trying to stop you." Rory snapped back more forcefully than she intended. Lucy's large brown eyes widened. Rory sighed and wondered why they were even talking. "Where I come from there is a heavy price for owing your life to someone like me." She explained quietly, looking down at her empty bowl. "Trust me Fairy, it's not something you should be thankful for." The thieves Guild always collects its debts.

"Are you.." Lucy looked uncertain."Are you protecting me? Again?"

Rory didn't know how to answer. Yes, she guessed she was. But was it really that noble if the thing she was protecting Lucy from was herself? Secrets and Favours. Lucy owed her a favour. She owed Rory her life. It's how the lore went. It'd been the code Rory had lived by for the past four years though it felt like her entire life. Lucy Heartfilia owed Rory a debt, yet Rory had no interest in collecting it.

Silence lapsed between them. Eventually they both ended up looking at the stars. The small bright lights seemed even more distant tonight, if possible and they haplessly dotted the night sky like an afterthought marked in by a careless artist. Looking at them made Rory feel even colder. Tomorrow they would probably reach the cult. Rory had never been to this part of Fiore but this mountain range was full of spring valleys that sourced many rivers across the Kingdom. The land was self-sustainable and far from any form of civilisation; perfect for a cult. One problem bugged at the back Rory's mind however. If nobody had ever heard of Okator and his cult then that meant these people weren't interested in integrating with the locals. Or their economy. And if they spent all their lives hidden away up in the middle of nowhere mountain range, then where the hell did a reclusive unheard of cult get three million Jewel from? Rosemary had been in her guild long enough to know a stitch up when she saw one. But was she ever going to tell Titania that? Hell no. Even if that meant possibly being set free?

Rory had gotten to thinking earlier as she'd been deliriously pulled along under the scorching sun behind the wagon. This cult was probably not going to stop till it got her. So what was the harm in going along with. When Titania and the others hand her over to the cult tomorrow then the 'reward' will be down and her life could go back to only being hunted by the state and the odd slighted bounty hunter. Also admittedly Rosemary was a little bit curious. She wanted to know what these cultists looked like alright? And if they happened to be cannibalistic then Raven would just save her like usual. So really as it turned out, being captured by Fairy Tail was sort of a win/win situation for both parties, disregarding Rosemary's rising scrutiny into the actual status of the cults vaults of course. For in which case it would be more of a singular solid win for Rory and a empty handed, charitable win (for goodness is its own reward) for Fairy Tail.

The only thing that really put a damper on the situation was her shoulder. It really hurt. But the really worrying thing was that didn't hurt enough. Because, Rory figured, if you're going to get bitten by a demonic physical manifestation of objectively pure evil magical energy then that's got to be somewhere up in the nine point somethings on the painful crap that's happened to me scale. But as if were, this dull, aching, feverish pain that was ebbing from her shoulder was actually pretty tame. Rory had seen the results of black magic on human body in her tombs. For starters, she wasn't dead. Nor was she dying. She didn't appear to be in the process of transforming into a wolf (something you've got to be quite careful about when it comes to canine wounds- Lycanphropy is rather like the STD of the underworld. Not even one of the good ones, more like the embarrassing cousin you have that no one wants around at family meetings.) And she didn't appear to have any magical mutations. It was as if she just had a normal ordinary bite wound. Only those were not ordinary wolves.

Hence why she was slightly panicking inside. All she needed was this whole ordeal to be over and done with so she could get back to Crocus and get Doc to have a look at whatever was under the bandages.

Scuffling over by the campfire brought Rory back to reality. Next to her Lucy jumped to her feet and Rory watched as Fullbuster and Salamander did the same by the fire. Wait a minute, Rosemary thought, where's Titania?

There was as shout from around the corner and Rory could recognise that unintelligible northern gibberish anywhere. Titania appeared back into the small ravine where they'd set up camp, dragging a green cloaked figure with orange hair, a hooked nose, and black military boots.

"Found her snooping round the mountainside." Titania declared throwing Raven down to the floor next to Rory. So much for Raven saving her arse in case the cultists were cannibals. "I knew your little sidekick would be following us Duchess. Where ever you go, Nightingale is sure to follow."

"How smart of you to foil our plan." Rory deadpanned as next to her Raven spluttered indignantly.

"Sidekick?"

"Wait she's been out there the whole time?" Fullbuster cried as Titania began manacling Raven's pale bony wrists.

"She's been following us since the train station." Titania informed them.

"Seriously?"

Rory wondered why Lucy even looked surprised. Like hello? Thieves Guild?

"What took you so long?" Rory asked as Raven slumped moodily back against the wagon next to her, evidently put out at being caught. She no longer had a bow or her utility belt and it didn't look like she'd even bothered to cast an illusion over herself. Rosemary wondered what that meant.

Raven gave her a dirty look. "Oh hallo Raven, long time no see, how kind of you to come and rescue me." Her northern brogue failed entirely in imitating Rory's Flatlander drawl. Rory raised an eyebrow at the swipe. Well two could play at that game.

"Ach it's nae problem Dutch, nae much ay a bludy rescue when ye gie doon tae it thocht." Rory shot back. "Guess aam jist blinkin' useless arenae lassie?"

Raven looked severely unimpressed. "I do not sound like that."

"Ah dinnae soond loch 'at ." Rory mimicked childishly.

Their bickering was interrupted by Titania's sword point, hovering devilishly close to Raven's face. Her pale blue eyes went cross eyed trying to keep the end in view. "Are there any more of you out there?" Titania boomed. Raven gulped.

"No?" It sounded more like a question. Titania narrowed her eyes and her sword drew closer. Raven leaned so far back she nearly on top of the wagon.

"I will ask one last time. Are there any more you out there?"

There was a small clattering sound and a few pebbles slide down the rock wall above them. Rory's eyes snapped up and looked searchingly out into the shadows.

"If by 'ye' ye mean 'me' then no cause I'm right here."

Rory strained her ears, there was a slight scampering sound above. It's probably just an animal, she told herself. But in the shadows on the far side of the camp she could have sworn there was something there. By the fire Salamander had gone very still. He sniffed the air inquisitively.

"No one's out there! I'm the only backup Duchess has okay!"

"What is it Natsu?" Asked the cat through his fish. Lucy turned and watched the Salamander, no longer taking interest in the interrogation.

Salamander frowned. "People."

Behind them Raven winced as Titania's sword finally made contact at a point between her eyes. "Okay so maybe there's a back up back up as well, but I swear-"

Gray stood next to Salamander, whose hands had subconsciously caught fire. "How many?"

Rory tried desperately to catch Raven's eye so she could silently convey whatever the hell the plan was and who was out there, but Raven's eyes were too busy going cross eyed over the sword to notice. Salamander turned in a full circle, looking up at the rock walls surrounding them. "I don't know. They've moved out of the wind. It's hard to tell what's new scent and what's the old."

"Old scent?" Rory piped up, frowning at him.

Salamander looked round. "This whole valley smells of people. I thought it was kinda weird since there's no one about."

Lucy looked at him incredulously. "And you didn't tell us?" It was hard to tell if she was actually angry or just exasperated.

"Well maybe this is a trade route or something." Gray suggested.

To Raven's relief Titania sheaved her sword and joined her comrades by the fire, frowning. "The roads aren't on any official map. We're only here following the instruction left on the reward poster to find the rendezvous point, but officially this place hasn't been cartographed."

Gray shrugged offhandedly. "Then it's a smuggler route."

"It's not." Both Rory and Raven chorused. When everyone looked round at them questioningly, Raven pointed between them with an explanatory "Thieves Guild."

"We know all the smuggler routes." Rory elaborated. "Even the unofficial ones."

"Pretty nifty short cuts some of them."

"These mountains haven't been active for hundreds of years now." Rory continued. "Officially and unofficially on all channels. So what does that tell you Titania?" Another scrabble of pebbles came clattering down on the other side of the canyon and Rory felt her magical aura tingle. She and Titania locked eyes, both coming to the same conclusion at the same time. They were not alone.

A high pitch whistled sounded above them and the canyon was flooded with light. Huge grappling chains rained down from the rocks ahead. One wrapped itself around Titania's sword but she batted it away like it was a fly. Happy leapt to his feet, wings springing out of nowhere. He flew upwards and hit his head on the top of a tiny cage that fell on top of him, one of his wings getting trapped between the bars and the ground. Natsu yelled and ran for him, but two chains caught him round the arm. He twisted them wrapping the metal round his forearms then pulled, his biceps flexing as above them figures scrambled for footing against the rock in the shadows. He threw back his head and let out a roar of fire that trembled the ravine in a way only dragon fire can.

Gray dove to the side, dodging a grapple whilst turning an oncoming cage into ice then shattering it. A huge humanoid cow in blue y-fronts with a massive double edged axe was happily chipping away at a chain that caught Heartfilia's ankle, presumably one of her celestial spirits. Rory and Raven staggered to their feet, using the wagon for support with their bound hands. Rory jumped aside as more restraints flew at her. Raven was not fast enough and a grapple hit her on the head and she immediately crumpled back to the floor. Rory threw up a physical portal and sheltered Raven's body and the wagon as Titania brought down half the mountain wall as she dragged their attackers down into the ravine from above.

The figures were covered head to toe in brownish robes, camouflaging them against the rock and were no match for Titania in her new armour and hammer. A grapple attached itself on to Rory's shackles and she was yanked face first across the rock floor towards the other side of the canyon. Her foot hooked on Gray's ankle as she slid past, momentarily stopping her movement whilst he fired ice arrows at the cloaked figures Titania threw at him. The other end of the chain pulled harder and Rory's arms and upper body was nearly lifted off the ground. Gray had clamped his legs shut around her ankle, stopping her from moving forward. Right next to her face, was Happy still trapped under his cage. His wings had vanished but he now appeared to weak to lift the cage off of him.

There was a loud moooo and Heartfilia's cow came crashing into them, flattening Gray on top of her. The bone crushing weight caught her off guard and her concentration fell; on the other side of the camp her portal diminished and Raven and the wagon were buried under the rock fall. The cow disappeared with a dazed pop but Gray was still on top of her and the force at the end of the chain tugged again and Rory was pulled out from underneath him. He grabbed hold of her foot at the last moment yanking her back and Happy, whose cage had been knocked over by the cow, took hold of Gray's shoulders, flying furiously backwards. The tug of war was momentarily in stale mate, then with looks of alarm, Rosemary, Gray and Happy began to slide precariously forward.

Above them, Titania was flying about one side the ravine in winged armour, smashing at their attackers with her giant hammer. On the other side, Salamander was scaling the wall and was sending balls of fire up at the assailants from his mouth. Lucy was on her knees and furiously digging away at the rubble that covered Raven, a maid-like celestial spirit standing above her, defending away any on coming chains with chains of her own. They could hear every time the spirit defended her mistress as the flying chains made sharp clanging sounds every time they connected like ringing swords.

Rosemary, Gray and Happy were dragged forward another inch at a snail's pace. Gray swore and Rory conversationally swore back. A small metal can flew out of the shadows from where Rory's chain protruded, smacked her in the face, bounced on Gray's head and hit Happy full in the chest. He fell backwards out of the air and green gas began to steam out around them. More cans rained down from above them, filling the floor with thick green smoke and Rory felt herself go dizzy. One can landed in Salamander's mouth and he crunched down on it. For a moment nothing happened. Then his eyes began to water and he chocked, the green gas spilling from his mouth, nose and ears. Salamander let go the rock wall clutching his throat and fell out of sight.

Titania screamed in fury as she looked down at the ravine floor and saw her party unconscious and covered in the vile green sleeping gas. Masked figures jumped at her from the rock walls. piling on her and weighing her down, stuffing the foul green stuff into her face until her eyes burned and she began to black out. Erza Scarlet crashed unconscious next to her fallen allies on the ravine floor.

For the second day straight Rosemary awoke tied up. She groaned and the first thing she noticed is they'd removed her shoes, her bare toes wiggled in the coolish air. The second was that her shoulder felt like it was on fire, it was incredibly hot. She was no longer wearing her hat but her fringe stuck to her forehead with sweat, as did her shirt.

Through her heavy headache and feverish gaze she noticed she was still bound by Fairy Tail's magical shackles, rendering her still portal less. Only this time, her arms were behind her back and she was chained to a wooden post. The ground was rough with rocks and earth like the ravine. She sat in a brown circular tent with a high triangular roof, all around her the others were also chained to posts. They sat in a semi-circle with their legs stretched and bound in front of them, footless and chained to one master post in the middle of the tent, that sat before the entrance flap. Hanging above the post from the ceiling was Happy slumped on his side in a cage.

Pitifully Rory tried to summon a portal, any portal, open or closed, solid or clear. Nothing happened. She groaned pathetically, her head rolling back against her post.

"It's no use Dutch." Came a familiar voice to the left of her. "The whole tents been enchanted. No magic can be used in side of it, otherwise Salamander would have burned us out an hour ago."

Rory stared blearily at the people around her. Fairy Tail sat chained around her, groggy and annoyed. Salamander appeared to be straining himself against his shackles, looking mildly constipated as he tried to summon up his magic. "When did you all wake up?"

A new voice answered haughtily. "Everyone came too about seventy five minutes ago. We've been waiting for you to wake up now. That must be some nasty wound you got on your shoulder, Duchess, you look a tad feverish."

Rory knew she must be feverish because that could not have been Doc's sneer she just heard. But even as she lifted her head, there was Doc bound to a post opposite her and next to Salamander. They'd taken her doctors coat and stethoscope so now she sat only in her tight green cocktail dress, her bare feet with blue painted toenails wiggling in the air. Her navy head scarf was gone from around her head and instead drooped around her neck like a neckerchief or gag she'd shaken free of. Even after apparently spending the night tied up in a tent, Doc's dark moss hair was still sleek and shiny and held in a perfect bun.

Doc smiled at Rory's bleary scrutiny and nodded at her from across the tent. "Good morning, sleep well?"

"The hell you doing here?"

Titania sniffed from the centre of the tent. "She was Nightingale's back up." She said stiffly.

Rory blinked incomprehensively and lolled her head to the side to look at Raven. "You brought Doc as your back up?" She asked slowly, making sure to get the words right.

"Obviously."

Rosemary frowned. "Isn't she a pacifist?"

Raven shifted uncomfortably against the floor. Without her cloak and boots she was in nothing but her black corset, blood red jeans and thick fluffy pink socks. "So? Got somethin against her religion do ye? What's wrong with Jeeorye?"

"Jiori." Half the tent corrected her flatly.

Rory stared at Raven. "I was captured by four combat trained wizards, one of which is S Class, another a bloody dragon slayer, and your plan to save me from them and or the potentially cannibalistic cultist they planned to hand me over to was to come in unarmed with a pacifist?"

"I wasna unarmed!" Raven cried indignantly. "I had me bow till Titania snapped it in half and threw it into the canyon."

"I'm not apologising for that." Titania muttered lazily.

"So you came with a bow and the guilds only pacifist." Rory summarised. "Literally the only person who not be no good in a fight. Thanks for that input, Raven, you've been a great help."

"I came with the guilds only healer." Raven snapped back. "Which seems to be a good thing since ye look like if ye weren't already sittin' down ye'd've collapsed by now!"

Rory couldn't help but admit to herself that Raven did have a point. There was only one problem, one which Happy quickly pointed out.

"Yeah she's really being a great help sitting over there on the other side of the tent." Happy said dryly from his cage. "Tied up. Like the rest of us."

"Shut it fur ball." Raven snarled.

Lucy stared sceptically between the three of them. "So this is the infamous thieves guild. You guys are supposed to be legends! Raven Nightingale and Tombraider Duchess of the Thieves Guild, a rich amongst rags, no tomb she can't get into and no cell she can't get out of!"

"This isn't exactly a cell, love." Rory reminded her bluntly. It felt kind of weird being referred to in such a manner, she was hardly legend, she felt. What was even weirder was that Lucy seemed almost disappointed.

"Also notice how the fancy titles apply only to Duchess, and not Raven. Hence why she's the backup." Doc added spitefully.

Raven glared at her through her curtain of orange hair. "Well ye're back up back up so ye can't talk."

"At least I didn't mess up the plan and get caught by a Fairy when we were supposed to be keeping our distance and observing!"

"Ye still got caught though!"

"So did you! And there is only one me and I'm a pacifist and there are six of you. Seven if you're counting the cat!"

From his cage Happy declared "We're counting the cat."

Gray thudded his head against his pole and groaned in agony. "Can't you two go five minutes without bickering? You're doing my head in."

"Well now you know how the rest of us feel when you and Natsu go at it." Lucy shot at him. Gray retorted at the same time as Raven and the tent became awash with arguing voices. Rory winced as her headache got more painful.

"Enough!" Titania roared and silence fell immediately. "Arguing amongst ourselves is not going to help the situation. And Nastu stop that," she added to the dragon slayer, "The tents enchanted you can't use magic in here, stop trying and save your energy."

Salamander slumped in exhaustion against his pole. He'd been straining against it since Rory woke up, his face screwed up in concentration. "Why can't I use my fire!" He yelled in frustration. "This is horrible! I'm a powerful dragon slayer I will not be defeated by a tent!"

"We'll get out of here soon enough." Lucy soothed reassuringly, "then you can burn this entire place to the ground." It sounded like a wonderful idea to Rory, and it seemed to work on Salamander too as he relaxed against his bindings.

"There's one problem with that though Lucy," Happy said above them."We have no way of getting out."

"There's always a way out." Rory said immediately on instinct. When they all looked at her she shrugged. "It's true."

"How would you escape then?" Lucy asked.

Titania narrowed her eyes. "Duchess has certain proficiency for getting out of sticky situations as I seem to recall. It would be wonderful if you could call upon those talents at the moment."

"Anything to please you dear." Rory replied tiredly. She looked around the tent, blinking sweat out of her eyes. The ache in her shoulder was not going away but thankfully the longer she stayed away her headache seemed to null. "Well first of all we need to take into account everything we know."

"We're tied up in a tent and we can't access our magic."

Rory ignored Gray's heavy sarcasm and looked at Raven. "Your plan was to stay distant and observe wasn't it? What did you observe then before Titania caught you?"

Immediately Raven began list, "Area's full of small ravines and canyons like the one ye were in. There's a river runnin to the north, there is vegetation there and plenty on the south side too."

"And the cult?"

"Only known civilisation in the mountain range Dutch." Raven replied, her voice grave. "We don't know much about them either, they're on no records, yer bounty is the first time they've interacted with the outside world. "

Titania shook her head. "Well that can't be true cause otherwise they wouldn't have known to set Duchess's bounty. And if the river is up north then we must be near it."

Rory found herself nodding along to Titania's logic. Doc was as well. "We are." She confirmed. "They didn't set sleeping gas on me like they did with you lot. I didn't resist so they just blind folded me and I remember hearing a river."

Lucy turned to Salamander. "Natsu what can you smell?"

"People." Salamander replied simply. "I can hear them too. If there is a camp we're a little way off from it but someone's cooking pork and its killing me inside, I'm so hungry Luce. They've put seasoning on it and it's slow roasting and I bet the fire cooking it tastes great too." His mouth began watering at the far off scent none of them could smell.

Gray raised an eyebrow. "Right. Well now we 'know everything' how do we get out of here?"

"No idea."

Gray stared at her. "Aren't you supposed to be some sort of professional at getting out of these situations?" He accused. "How you thieves guild people ever escape anywhere I have no idea, all you do it fight amongst yourselves!"

Rory glared at him. "Well usually I can use my portal." She shot back defensively.

Raven nodded along. "Yeah and even when she can't, I keep explosive black powder in me tool belt. Ye'd be surprised what ye can blow through with that stuff. Pity Titania got rid of it along with me bow." She glared pointedly at the other red head. Titania opened her mouth to retort but was quickly cut off.

"And what do you do when you can't portal or explode your way out of a situation?" Lucy prompted quickly, dispelling the brewing the argument between Titania and Raven.

"There's actually only a few situations where portal and blowing stuff up doesn't work." Rory told her.

Happy stuck his head out of the bars of his cage. "Well this is one of those situations so what else you got?"

Rory sighed. "Run?" She hedged.

"Yeah, let me just finish stretching my muscles." Gray replied snarkily, whilst pointedly jiggling his legs causing the chains on the main pole in front of them to rattle.

"Sometimes we flirt our way out?" Doc tried.

Lucy laughed."Tsch! Yeah lets all just giggle and blush for our imaginary guards!"

"Well, this one time," Raven began thoughtfully, "we tied Dutch up in a ball and stuffed her down me top and pretended I was heavily pregnant and goin into labour so they had to let us go in case there were difficulties with the delivery cause we were too rural for a caesarean. "

"It didn't work." Rory informed them after a pause, sounding severely unimpressed.

"Not one of our better plans." Doc agreed admittedly.

Suddenly Salamander stiffened. "They're coming." He said.

Moments later Rory's human hearing caught the sound of voices too. Shadows moved up alongside the tent, stretching upwards like giants. Two shadows came and stood guard either side of the tent.

"Keep your mouths shut and do what they say." She instructed them quickly and quietly. "Be good long enough and they'll let at least one of us out of our shackles, when that happens and if they seem hostile scream bloody murder and free the rest of us. If this is the cult then they only want me but keep your wits about you all the same, they might-"

The tent flap lifted and she cut off. The a voice from outside called out in a sharp unknown language and the figure drew back. They saw his shadow straighten up and turn round to the foreign voices. They all sat on edge, ears straining to hear what was happening out side.

Doc took the brief opportunity to hiss precariously from across the tent "Does anyone else get the feeling something really bad is going to happen?"

"Only every time ye open yer mouth." Raven muttered, unable to resist taunting her back. Both Gray and Erza shushed them.

"Be quiet." Erza instructed.

Raven shifted against her bindings and spared a glance at Rory. "Well if anything bad is goin to happen it will be cause of this rubbish plan. 'Be good and maybe they'll let us go' Since when has that ever worked around cults? Need I remind ye Dutch about Highwester Mountain?"

Rory frowned, the memory of the snow capped peak exploding around her jumping to the front of her mind. "Shut up Raven, at least my backup plan isn't bring the bloody pacifist."

"You don't even have a backup plan!" Raven accused.

"Heartfilia could flirty with them."

Lucy snarled against her chains and hissed at her "Yeah that's not happening North."

Erza shushed them all again, her brown eyes glaring at each speaker before snapping back to the hushed shadows outside the tent.

"Great black up plan." Raven muttered sarcastically once Titania's wrath had moved on. "It's totally going to work."

"Well neither did bring the pacifist! No offence Doc."

Doc hummed. "None taken. I'm useless in fights."

"Shut up!" Gray snarled just as the voices outside subsided and shadowed figure approached the tent flap.

You could have cut the tension with a knife, Rory thought, as the robed figured ducked into the tent and straightened up. He was tall and broad shoulders and no one dared say a word as silently he reached up and removed the purple cloth that wound round his face.

There was a huge intake of breathe and Rory hissed as the man's brown and heavily scarred face became visible.

"You." Lucy gasped but the man did not acknowledge her instead he stared straight at Rory and she found herself locking eyes with the man from Okator's Tomb. In the bright light of day that shined through tent she could see just how scarred his face really was. The entirety of his cheeks and forehead were covered in tiny white crosses, dark hair poking out from under his purple turban. Rory gulped under his intense gaze. She could feel the others in the tent watching her, staying silent like she'd suggested.

"Tombraider, Duchess of the Thieves Guild." The man announced, his voice just as deep and baritone as it had been within the tomb."You have something that belongs to me."

Crap.