A/N - This was supposed to be out yesterday, but I got hit by something that knocked me out of commission. Slept for most of yesterday, all through last night, and most of this morning. Only sheer determination kept me awake to get both this chapter and the next written so that I could get both out today.

Not sure if this means that I am knocked out of the Hall of Fame for not posting these prompts everyday, but I will see what happens when the end of the month comes and I message the mods running it.

Dead Stars

By Genavere

Chapter Two - What is Going On?

A sharp pain banged against the inside of his head greeted Natsu the moment consciousness pulled at him. He could not remember the last time he felt this type of agony, the pounding, and desperate need to seek Wendy out to beg for healing. It kept him from drudging up memories of why he was in such a state.

Unlike Lucy, alcohol did not affect him, so it could not be that. And he had not eaten strange mushrooms since the year of training. Those had left him reeling for a good week afterwards. Maybe he tried to fight Erza again, he thought of the steel glove the woman enjoyed slamming into his skull.

No, that could not be the cause, either, he realized, since she had gone on a mission that had requested Wendy's assistance in a village after a natural disaster. That had been the reason why only he had gone with Lucy on the mission from Hisui.

His eyes snapped opened. Lucy!

Pain from the dim light set the throbbing off in his head to a new degree. Squinting with one eye closed, he looked around his surroundings and saw the dark ceiling of what resembled a cave. That was odd. They had been on a train the last he remembered. He remembered Lucy's scent calming his rolling stomach, his arms tight around her, her fingers in his hair.

Closing his eyes, he took in a deep, slow breath through his nose. A kaleidoscope of scents fought for dominance, more than he had expected if it had just been him and Lucy. Rain and damp rocks were the easiest to pull forward and understand. They were in a cave and he could hear the dripping water outside. With it came the clean scent of the forest that he did not need to see to know it was there.

The metallic tang of blood caught his attention. Some of it held his distinct smell, and there was Lucy's, but so many different people came forward, from young to old. It did not make sense. Had something happened on the train?

Then, through the iron, he found her. Though close by, a distinct smell lingered with it, one that he knew, but could not placed his finger one it with the pounding.

Groaning, he pushed himself onto his side and sat up. Everything spun. His stomach rolled and lurched.

Gripping his head, he leaned forward and held himself between his knees. Slow breaths in through the mouth. Exhale out through the nose. Years of motion sickness had helped him fight the constant waves of nausea on transportation.

A cold sweat built up on his face in his body's desperate need to lay back down. If he did that, then he would not be able to search for Lucy. That desperation to find her pushed away any personal discomfort he felt.

Couple more breaths, he told himself and moved his fingers through his hair. Another stab of pain shot through his head as they brushed across a gigantic goose-egg on the back of his head. Damn, had Lucy tried to take on Erza's roll? No, he knew his partner and she would never do that if he had not invaded her personal space without warning. And it happened even less now that they were together.

It had to be the reason why he did not remember how they ended up in the cave. That meant Lucy had carried him there, or one of her spirits did. It also further confirmed that something had happened on the train.

He lifted his head slowly from between his knees and cracked open an eye. There was nothing in the cave that showed they had made camp. No supplies, no fire—against his arguments, Lucy had insisted bringing a fire starter with their gear after he had not been able to help start a fire once.

A swell of worry clenched his gut. With the rain and no gear, would she had even been able to start a fire? He quickly looked around the rest of the cave, then looked on his other side.

"Lucy!"

He scrambled over to her limp body and stared at the paleness of her skin. A tinge of blue had seeped into her fingers and lips. Any discomfort he felt held nothing compared to seeing her in this state. He gathered her in his arms and felt the iciness of her skin. The lack of shivering concerned him and knew from their many travels to Mount Hakobe that hypothermia had set in.

Instincts kicked in, raising his body temp, he gathered her closer against him and lifted his head. Fire scorched the ceiling of the cave, water sizzled and evaporated, the bone chilling temperature rose to that resembling a sauna.

When satisfied, he chucked his jacket and wrapped it around her. "Lucy?" He brushed the damp hair from her face and ran his fingers through the strands until they were soft and warm. "Lucy?"

His eyes ran over her body, took in the bruises and injuries. It worried him that he did not know if they were from what happened with the train or if she had fought against someone. Even if she had run out of magical power, Loke would have come out to help her with his own power. The only reason he would not come out would be if he had been injured during a fight.

None of what he was connecting made him feel any better.

With no supplies, no food, or even a blanket, there was little he could do to keep her warm besides his own fire. And without knowing the entire set of events that led them to this cave, it made trusting anyone outside the cave near impossible. Anyone out there could have been a reason for both of their current states.

"Luce," he patted her cheek gently. "Hey, snap out of it, I need you to wake up. Lucy!"

Unlike in that damp cellar when he found her without her top and with blood over her face, he could hear her heart beating, the barely there breaths. Stubborn as always, she clung to life. Pressing his forehead against hers, a breath of relief escaped him. She lived, that held more weight to him in that moment than anything else.

The blood on her clothes all held different smells than just her own, all of them stronger. That meant she had not been injured bad enough to lose too much blood. Even his own blood overwhelmed hers. With those smells, he could track it back to the train and find their supplies. There were medicines and bandages inside of it that could help both of them.

It would be faster if he went alone, and if he had to fight, he could not guarantee that he could keep her safe in his current state. And if he took her out into the rain, her hypothermia would get worse.

"Lucy." He shook her lightly, pushing back the pain it sent through him. If he left her in the cave, an animal could come by and hurt her. Or if there were enemies nearby, they could find the cave. A growl escaped him.

No matter what he chose, there were no good answers. If Happy were with them, he would have felt comfortable leaving them both in the cave while he scouted around and looked for their supplies. Alone, he struggled with the right choice.

Unable and unwilling to leave her alone, he stood and tested his footing carefully. The world spun a bit, tilting one way then the other. He barely had enough time to set her down on the wet grass outside before the bile in his stomach came up.

Retching until his stomach ached, he spat several times to rid his mouth of the taste that still lingered and used a large leaf from the ground to wipe his face and mouth. Whoever had caused his mess would pay, especially if they had a hand in harming his partner.

With a wish of some water to rinse out his mouth, he head back to Lucy and noticed her eyes gazed up at the canopy above. "Luce!" His knees dug into the ground next to her and his hands cupped her face gently. "You scared me, I didn't think you'd wake up!"

Brown irises met his. "N-Natsu…" her voice barely a whisper made even his hearing strain to hear her. "You…woke up…"

"Yeah, I did. Oi! Keep your eyes open, Lucy!" He patted her face as her eyes fluttered. "Come on! I need you to tell me what's goin' on. Dammit!"

Nothing he did worked. The breaths she took her stronger than before, but he could tell her heartbeat still lacked the strength it normally did. If she woke up once, it had to happen again.

Looking around, a sight outside the entrance of the cave caught his attention. Signs of something crawling across the dirt had torn the grass away from areas and raised lumps of dirt like something dug in deep. He looked over Lucy again and noticed the dirt under her nails, the mud that stained her clothes and hands. How long had she been carrying him to warrant such actions, he wondered with a frown.

Lifting her up, he shifted her onto his back so her entire chest was pressed against the heat there and clasped his fingers together under her thighs. With her firmly in place against him, he set off in the direction that he could smell the stale blood that covered both of their clothes. Even with the rain, it permeated into the air. That meant whatever had happened, the rain had not been able to wash it away.

The implications did not bode well.

If Lucy had managed to stay awake longer to give even a brief run-down of events, it would not feel that he trudged toward war without knowing who the enemy could be. Not that he would say no to beating whosever ass he needed to that landed them in this predicament. The worry he felt for his partner and the pounding in his head kept him from feeling any excitement. She kept him safe through dangers he did not know of, that meant he would step up to do the same.

The first sign of civilization he came across was the deserted town they were taking the train to. He frowned at the sight of it and the destroyed sections he came across. Smoke still rose from the piles of rubble and the heavy smell of explosives stung his nose. The damage had not been due to Lucy, but the direction the blood was in meant she had gone through this area to find the cave.

Clenching his teeth, the recent damage told him all he needed to know about why Lucy had not taken shelter in one of the deserted buildings. Had their pursuers even looked before blasting them? Whatever the answer to that questions, he doubted he would accept it.

"Ya sure know how to cause trouble, dontcha, Lucy." He glanced over his shoulder at her resting features and felt his own soften. "It's okay, I won't tell if you don't."

Deciding to stay in the woods just off of the town, he had to keep adjusting the path the smell led him until they came across the train tracks. There were only two directions those torture cabins could go, and that meant leaving the forest to head directly towards the blood.

Once the woods opened to plains on one side and the town on the other, the true extent of what happened to the train hit him.

Similar to the buildings he came across, the train had been completely derailed with smoke coming from the engine and toward the middle of the train, a couple compartments down from where they had sat. Blackened bodies laid around the ground outside of the train, but no smoke smoldered from them. Likely from the rain, he reasoned.

As he got closer, the aridness of smoke and coppery scent of blood clogged his senses and burned his eyes. Thankfully, he could still hear around him and the distinct crackling of flames brought a bought of excitement to him. A meal from that would help his head and give him the needed energy to face whatever enemy had caused this.

Kicking off one of his sandals, he felt the roof of an overturned cabin before carefully setting Lucy against the cool metal. "Stay here, Lucy, okay? Gonna take care of that fire and find our stuff."

He brushed his thumbs over her cheeks and kissed her forehead gently, "I'll be back."

Sandal back on, he took off along the destruction and dove into a cabin with a giant hole in the side. Immediately, he fell back as the heavy stench of blood, smoke, and corpses assaulted him like a punch to the gut. Bodies remained where they had fallen when the cabin had tipped to the side, but horror filled him when he realized some of them had been torn apart by the torn off metal and ground.

Limbs and pieces of once people hung from seats and stained the cabin. The singed edges told that those had belonged to those who had sat closest to the explosion. A literal hellscape could be the only way to describe any of it. The thought of consuming the fire that used the luggage and body fat to continue to burn made him sick.

Closing his eyes, he thought of Lucy, the fact that she had likely seen all of this fresh and heard the screams of those injured and dying gave him resolve. Without a moment more to think it over, he inhaled deeply and pulled the flames inward.

Of all the fire he had consumed over the years, there had been many that left him regretting ever tasting the flames. Most of those had been due to the taste, some had left him ill. Tears stained his face and he took a shuddered breath. The tastes that had lingered on these would haunt him for a long time.

Even as the pain of his injury subsided enough that the world stopped spinning and a fire pulsed in his belly, none of his usual vigor filled him. He looked passed the area the flames had been and took in the charcoal remains of the bodies it had consumed. One in particular caught his attention. Blackened skeletal arms had remained wrapped around a smaller body in a similar condition.

Fury rushed through his veins. Whoever did this would pay!

Pulling himself up from the cabin, he glanced behind him to Lucy's location and pressed his lips together at her limp posture. He knew how strong she could be, but seeing the aftermath of what she would have had to deal with brought a new sense of pride in her strength.

At the train station when they were purchasing the tickets, the guy had told her something. Red something. It had been important enough the guy had made her repeated it back and forth a couple times between them. At the time, Natsu assumed the guy had just been flirting with her. It had made his protests of the round time louder than normal so her attention would be on him.

Red…red…what did the red mean?!

Grunting at himself, he decided to find their bags while he tried to remember that seemingly important information. If he could find them, a call for backup would be easy to make to the guild. Pride be damned. Fuck, he would give Hisui a piece of his mind if he found out she knew what kind of danger they were headed into it without warning them!

Running over the sides of the cabs, his stomach quarreled as he followed the aged scent of his own blood to the one they rode in. A large hole had been blown out of the side of it, but it had a different scent than the other one. This one smelled of Loke's magic.

Dropping in, he at least had a bit of preparedness for the sight he found. There were less bodies, but many had twisted necks, limbs, or puncture wounds that suggested their cabin had been rocked pretty badly in the crash.

A young child stared up at him with glossy eyes and bile rose up.

If Lucy had seen that scene…he swallowed thickly and carefully climbed himself over the bodies as best as he could without stepping on them. They had sat toward the front of the cab since he thought it shook less. Anything to help his stomach even if it were not true.

When he got to the seats he could smell both of them on, he began sniffing around for their bag. He found a place that smelled of his blood with a congealed pool of it on a couple of other bodies. There were not as many in the front, but he remembered that the train had been pretty packed by the time of leaving.

They had, had their own bench, but the one across from them where other members of Team Natsu would have normally sat were other passengers. If all of Team Natsu had been on the train, would they have all made it out alive, the thought came unbidden and he quickly shoved it away. Those kinds of thoughts would do neither of them any good.

Luggage had been strewn all over and some left bodies in unnatural positions. They all looked similar to what Lucy used to lug behind her before they just combined their items together in his bag. Frowning, he sat back and thought about how they had boarded the train.

He had followed her, complaining loudly about having bought round-trip tickets. Once they finished the job, they could easily walk back to the guild. That was when she reminded him that the mission had been personally given to them by Queen Hisui.

When she motioned him to throw the bag up in the luggage compartment, he had done it without much thought, but she had stood on the seats and did something to it. His eyes widened and looked up at their seat, then above that where his bag laid secure by the netting.

Lucy had started securing their luggage after a particularly rough train ride home had left her with a headache when the bags had fallen on her head and buried Happy under her clothes when it exploded open. She had stayed to talk to the staff of the train and had been informed of the netting to secure the luggage, but not many people used it.

It reminded him why he loved at woman!

Snapping the netting, the bag fell securely into his arms and he dug through the smaller pockets until he found the communication lacrima. "Lucy is saving our asses once again." Pressing the icons needed, he held it to his ear and waited.

"Lucy?" Erza's voice came through with a worried lift to it. "Is everything all right?"

"Erza, you need to contact the guild and get people here right away. Call everyone, even those magic council people!"

"Natsu?! What is going on?" Hearing him request even the magic council must have shocked her since, even with the new members, he tried to avoid them when he could.

"Not sure. I woke up and Lucy was in rough shape, and the train we had been riding had been attacked." He looked at one of the deceased passengers next to him. "There's a lot of people here who didn't make it."

"What is your current location? We will head out immediately."

"I don't know the place's name, but it's a deserted town near the southern edge. To get here, you have to buy a round-trip train ticket." He ran a hand over his face and realized that it had begun to rain again.

"Gray says he knows the place you are talking about. We will request assistance to head there to help with situation. Do you want me to call the palace?"

No, he wanted to tear into the woman who had sent them on this mission without warning them of the dangers. Even if she did not know of them, he wanted to take his anger out on someone. Swallowing down his initial answer, a growl filled the silence. "That might be better."

Even not seeing the woman, he could hear her nodding in response. "Understood. Take shelter somewhere and we will be there as quickly as we can."

Ending the call, he shoved it back into the pocket he found it in and threw the bag over his shoulder. With the rain started again, he could not risk Lucy's health any longer outside the cave. Crawling out of the hole Loke had provided, he looked at where he had left his partner.

Everything ran cold inside him. Even the fire he consumed had turned to ice. Where did she go?! He took off down the side of the train and jumped off to look around the ground. Between all the bodies he passed, none held her scent, and as the rain fell harder, catching her scent grew difficult.

"Lucy!"

There! He caught her scent where he had left her and noticed several pairs of muddy boot prints on the cab headed for the town. Fire sizzled the rain around him and he glared at the ruins. Whoever took her had probably attacked the train, had killed the civilians minding their own business.

Golden red eyes focused in and knew only one thing: the time to hunt had come.

A/N - This is one of the darker pieces that I have written recently. I know not many will enjoy it, but I want to show case how terrible these people are.

Hope you enjoyed this chapter!

Leave a review and let me know what you think!