A/N - Back on track from the catch up yesterday. Today's prompt was Knife Wounds, and when I first thought about what would happen in this chapter, I did not know if I would actually use it. There were still some alternatives that I could use, and one of them would have worked, but I think it came out decently.

Dead Stars

By Genavere

Chapter Four - Knife Wounds

Patience never suited Natsu's behavior, even in the past living with Igneel. After he joined Fairy Tail, he had strived to do the impossible right away. Accepting missions without knowing what the request paper said, pushing himself to take the hardest quests before he might have been ready, and going so far as stealing an S-Class mission.

When he met Lucy and they became a team, she taught him that patience could be beneficial at times, especially when they needed a plan to tackle a mission. One that did not involve her being bait for large monsters to chase.

But his resolve to take any of those lessons to heart turned to ash when it involved Lucy being in danger.

Unfortunately for him, when he had tried to find those who had taken her, he found something else entirely.

The way the train cars had been filled with bodies, he had been certain no one besides them had survived. Sure, he had not checked all of the cars, but if theirs had any been any indication, the rest had to have been bad. Yet, in one of the far-off empty buildings, he found a large group of survivors.

Most of them were injured in one way or another. Some were only bruised or had small cuts. The serious injuries included missing limbs and those who had yet to wake up. None of them were in a good position mentally or physically.

Children stared in no particular focus, trapped in their own minds. A woman with her arm in a crude sling kept going back and forth between the children who were alone. Those who he realized had lost a parent or maybe even both in the attack.

A few of the adults talked to him once they realized he would not harm them. Through them, he found out that the group that attacked them had even attacked survivors who had tried to run. The bodies that laid beyond the train were some of those victims. Their attacks stopped when a woman began attacking them with people she summoned.

When he heard that, he asked for any information he could on her.

Some stated they saw her carrying another person they figured had been hurt in the derailment. A man in a suit followed closely behind her and a large cow-man took out enemies with a giant axe. She disappeared into the deserted town with the attackers following—they all made it a point to tell him those who attacked wore cloaks. Like people who are in a cult.

They also made a point to tell him that the woman saved them. If not for her, they had all feared they would be systematically killed car by car.

By the time they had told him everything they could, he felt the last bit of his patience ready to snap. Somewhere out there, the people who had tried to murder all of these people had Lucy. He could not full comprehend what he would do if he lost her.

But one thing still needed to be addressed.

"Hey, does the color red mean anythin' to you guys?" He asked, looking around at those willing and able to look at him. "When we got the tickets, the guy mentioned red."

"Y-yeah," a man in dark pants nodded. Without a single shirt on, it was easy to see the effects the cold hand on him, but the blood that stained his hands gave some answers to where his clothing went. "There's a circle at the loading dock that has two colors. For a train to stop here, there need to be passengers getting off, or the color has to be changed to red. No red, no stop."

"Please…if a train can stop here, we could leave this hell!" A woman with a bloodied bandage around her head cried.

The response between the survivors had a mixture of fear and hope. Getting back on a train after the events they had been in, he had to give them credit. He suffered from motion sickness and he avoided them like the plague.

"I just have to switch it to red?"

"Yes," Dark pants nodded. "If we hear a train, we will make a run for it."

Natsu frowned as he mulled over everything. Having another train full of civilians stop in a deserted town where war criminals were hiding did not seem like a good idea to him. He would bet even Lucy would agree with him on that. Still, some of the people there did not have much time. Erza said she would make the calls to get help here, but how long would that take?

"Leave it to me," he said and pushed himself to his feet. "I'll change it to red, but after that, I gotta look for Lucy. She's the woman you told me 'bout."

"She was captured?"

"Yea, but I'm gonna get her back!"

It did not take him long to get back to the train or to the landing. Once they heard their savior had been captured, he had practically been shoved out of the building and told to save her. Pride for Lucy surged through him. Leave it to his partner to become a hero to those who desperately needed hope to cling to.

The sign that needed to be changed stood tall with the green color glaring at him. It annoyed him, and he could easily picture Gray's face on the half circle. Grunting, he walked over to the lever on the ground next to it and gave it a hard pull. A swish sounded above him and that annoying Gray-green color had been replaced by a terrifying red that reminded him of Erza. That would make anyone stop what they were doing.

He turned to the town again and frowned. Lucy needed to be found, but her scent had been mixed with some of the survivors, likely those who had been passengers in their car, and the rain washed away where she would have been taken after. If he could just get a small whiff of her…

Jumping from the landing, he started down the empty streets. Half of the buildings were destroyed in a weird pattern on either side of the street. Had the cult done it while searching for the survivors, he wondered. No, from what he had heard before, it seemed they were searching for someone else. Probably the two mages that had gotten away from them.

If that were the case, then they should be out there searching for him. Standing in the middle of the street, he had made their job easy. But he had not seen a single one of them.

Thinking on what had been told to him and Team Sabertooth, the reports had something to do with the celestial realm. The three Celestial Wizards the public knew about were Hisui, Yukino, and Lucy. He narrowed his eyes on the standing buildings. If they had been after Lucy the whole time, then he had given her to them on a platter by leaving her alone.

His fists clenched. Dropping to the ground, he put his nose close to the ground and inhaled deeply. A whiff would lead him right to her, and then they could get out of this whole mess. Mission be damned. After everything that had happened, he doubted any of it had been legit. They were after the three of them, but to get Hisui, they would need something big to draw her out.

Like her two closest celestial friends…

Crawling around the ground, he worked his senses, working to pick out her scent. If he had to, he would scour the entire town with his nose to the ground.

Not only did he search with his nose, he kept his ears focused, too. Listening for any hints of life in the town. In the building he found the survivors, he heard them trying to calm each other. Rats scurried through alleyways and buildings. Embers cracked and hissed under the rubble of the destroyed homes.

His eyes narrowed. There, he found her scent, and in the same direction, larger rodents were moving around. Pushing off the ground, his fists lit with flames and he flew across the muddy ground toward Lucy.

#####

Breathe…Have to breathe…Lucy repeated the mantra in her mind. While it helped her to remember to take in ragged breaths that her lungs desperately craved, it proved a hold to her sanity.

Needles stuck out from underneath all her nails, even her toes. At least, she thought they were in her toes. The stone floor and lack of clothing left her open to the chill in the air, and thankfully numbed portions of her body.

Along her limbs, the leader had cut every constellation and zodiac sign into her skin with a dagger. The wounds bled, but would soon be washed away with another bucket of freezing water poured over her.

Every part of this had become a numb repetition that she could expect. It severely lowered the dramatic effect they wanted to pull from her. More than once she had ended up laughing at Abex—was that correct, she blinked through her haze—she had laughed at the guy. The Tea guy who had nearly cut her in half had more creativity in torture than this.

Not that she would tell them.

What had hurt more than the needles or the carvings, even the beatings were not half as bad as watching him shove her precious keys into her wounds. She could hear her spirits calling to her, could feel the thick liquid on their keys, but they could do nothing. Even she could do nothing.

From the haze in her vision and in her head, the heat she felt in her head even as her body froze, all the signs pointed to her body succumbing to illness. While the haze made dealing with the torture bearable, it frightened her to know she had a time limit. Fevers could grow worse in a small window, and if she did not get out soon, there would be no chance of escape.

Not to mention, she had to find Natsu.

That had been another point of concentration that helped her focus. They thought keeping his coat on the ground to be soaked in water and blood would affect her. In a way it did. Each bit of pressure they applied to the needles, each into the muscle carving, the punches to her core and face. Her eyes would seek it out and a rush of defiance pushed through her blood.

Natsu would never give up. He fought even if he had no energy left taking from the next day until he finished the job. What kind of partner would she be if she gave up?

"Is the other room ready?"

"Yes, sir!"

"Take her there, this is getting up nowhere. Strip her down completely when she is in place."

Breathe…She felt panic building up. What room were they talking about? Any torture they dished out, she could handle, but if they were to—

No, breathe, just breathe. If that happened, she would survive it just like everything else. Natsu would still be by her side through everything.

Clicks from the restraints being unlocked rung through the haze and she felt her arms go over the shoulders of people on either side of her. Behind her, her feet dragged across the uneven ground and tendrils of pain shot up through her nerves as the needles got caught.

Maybe, things did hurt a bit too much, she admitted. As tough as she could try to act, the torture had been rough. It hurt and she had cried out for them to stop. The water had a mixture in it that made her gag when she desperately tried to lap up some of it. When it washed over her wounds, fire burned in her veins and spread through her body.

New shackles were pressed deep into her wrists and her arms protested as they supported the whole of her body weight. Her toes no longer scraped across the floor, but dangled in the air. Blades cut into her skin and cold air breathed across the skin that had been protected by her clothes.

Hanging from the ceiling in nothing but what she had been born with, she watched hesitantly as Abex drew closer with a clean dagger in hand.

"I thought a change in scenery would help you a bit." Not once had his voice changed from the silkiness he had used from the beginning. Even when his eye would twitch or his fists clenched. He wanted her to believe he had full control, but they both knew he was on the edge.

"When you were in that chair, I just couldn't do everything that I wanted to you." The blade of the knife pressed against the inside swell of her breast and moved downward, tracing her hip bone and stopped over her right butt cheek as he walked around her. He had not pressed hard enough to cut her, but it offered enough of a warning.

Another cloaked dog came in with a whip. A wave of relief washed over her when she noticed it would not be her own used. Instead, this one had an end that tapered off to a sharp end. A traditional whip used for punishments.

A gasp left her torn throat as a hand tangled itself in her hair and twisted it around painfully. "You see, Lucy, I am a man who is obeyed. Everyone around me is below my status. Do you understand that?" When she gave no response, he yanked her hair back further. Her back arched painfully at the odd position he forced her in. "Do you understand?"

"Y-yes…!"

"Good, then you also know that punishment comes to thought who don't know their place." Another hard tug pulled her hair taunt. It felt like it would rip right from her skull!

Relief of the pain caused her to spring forward as his grip laxed. No, her eyes widened. It had not let go. Uneven strains of hair framed her face. The normal feel of her hair on her back laid barren and exposed to all.

In his hands, she watched him release the long strains to the floor unceremoniously.

"There," the smile in his voice chilled her and the leather of the whip caressed the skin of her back. "Now that there is nothing in the way, let's begin again."

A/N - I remember the scene when Natsu went to find Erza and Mira, and he was on his hands and knees sniffing the air. Never doubt the nose of a dragon slayer, he had said (or something like that), so I wanted to pay homage to that.

Let me know what you thought, and hope you enjoyed!