AN: Massive updates because of 3 years since I created this account! *3* Small, but big stuff will happen, guys! I hope you like it!
Chapter Eight – Keep Holding On
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"Keep holding on
'Cause you know we'll make it through,
We'll make it through
Just stay strong
'Cause you know I'm here for you,
I'm here for you"
Avril Lavigne – Keep Holding On
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"Come on, Freed." Gray told the green haired man as he worked to get the runes undone. Natsu had arrived ten minutes earlier with the rest of their friends and Freed had been trying to break through the invisible wall.
"Calm down, Gray." Erza told him, putting a hand on his shoulder. "If you rush him, it might actually make him slower."
"I know. It's just…" The dark haired man looked towards the wall. "She's there, waiting for us, for me. I promised, Erza. And today, according to her will have an Auction. What if we get in there too late?"
"We won't." The Titania told him. "Keep your cool, for when we do get in. We will find her and she'll be safe."
"You can't possibly know that." Gray hissed. "Everyone I've ever…" He looked away. "This is so frustrating."
"Look, this time you can save someone you love." The scarlet haired woman told him. "You'll just need to keep it together."
After a deep sigh, Gray walked to Natsu's side, calling him and then stepping where their friends couldn't hear them. "I need you with me again."
"What? Didn't we spend too much time together already?" The pink haired boy asked.
"Natsu. Please." Gray said between gritted teeth, he hated asking for favors, but this time he couldn't take chances, he would never forgive himself if they didn't find her sooner rather than later. "Your nose will find her sooner and I have, I need to find her sooner." Natsu had no idea of what to say, so he stayed in a shocked silence. "Think if it was Lucy in there, hurt and scared." Even if the Ice Mage were blind to his own feelings, it didn't mean he couldn't see the connection between those two. "Think of how much you'd want to see her with you, safe. Please, I beg…"
"Say nothing else." Natsu put a hand on his friend's shoulder as his eyes hardened and the pinkette started to walk away. He was not having his rival begging, not for not only a mutual friend, but to save someone it was clear Gray wanted to desperately save from harm. "I'll track her down and she will be fine. Juvia's not leaving you today, you'll get her in time." Natsu walked back where Lucy held Happy.
He remembered when he saw Future Lucy die in front of his eyes and he would not let his nakama feel as incapacitated and helpless as he felt once. No, they would get Juvia and she would be fine.
"Guys." Freed called his friends. "It's done, we can enter."
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Juvia was not good in hand-to-hand combat, in fact, she sucked. Her water always provided her with the space she needed to both protect and attack, but desperation could make her a good sparring partner for the Boss, it appeared.
Since she entered the room and saw Rissa, Juvia had launched herself on the horrible man, trying her best to get him in any way she could: kicking, scratching, biting, and punching.
Why would he do that to a sweet girl like Rissa? She just wanted out of a crappy life where she was abused, she just wanted to be free again.
The Boss just laughed at her attempts to hurt him; too weak and hurt to do more than just yell and punch his chest with her tiny fists.
"You'll need to do more than this, sweetheart." The Boss said in her ear after turning her around and grabbed the girl from behind, inciting a roar of anger inside the Water Mage.
She was never so angry in her whole life before. Never. Not even when Meredy wanted her Gray-sama's life. She was the one who put Rissa in all of that, there were girls being sold away like they were possessions and shipped away, and it was all that man's fault.
Juvia threw her hand back, and hit him hard enough so he loosened his grip as she freed herself. Her already ripped clothes only covered the basics, but she couldn't care less if it really showed anything, that man had already seen everything, she only wanted to hurt him.
"I knew you would be fun." The Boss touched where her head connected with his chin and smiled. "I am a sadist son of a bitch and see you finally fighting back is very, very arousing."
"I hate you!" She hissed and the man laughed.
"Oh, I know. That's why I am buying you for myself. I want to break you." They started to walk around the room without even realize. "You from Fairy Tail think you are better than everyone else… Guess what? I can break a Fairy, pull out her wings and make her beg for mercy."
"You won't have the chance." Juvia said and saw him march towards her, but she wasn't fast enough to run. He grabbed her by her arm and then slapped her so hard that she bit her cheek. Tasting her own blood made her sick and he was about to slap her again, the blunette felt it again. It was tiny, since her body was too damaged to give her more power than that, but she felt her magic.
The second slap came and instead of connecting with her cheek, his hand went through, she was made of water once again. He frowned in confusion and when Juvia's face returned to normal, her eyes were hard as everything he ever did to her was remembered.
The Boss was about to become her bitch.
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The place they held the girls was an old house with a basement which had many directions: it was like a labyrinth. Gray was following the Dragon Slayer and Lucy was tagging along, Erza went to find where they kept the other girls, while the Raijinshuu plus Cana went in another direction.
During their descend, all of them fought some guards, but they were ridiculously weak, and could only take the girls because they had no magic
"Hurry." Natsu said, suddenly more serious.
"What is it?" Gray asked, concerned.
"I smell her, but now there's blood in the air. I don't know if it's hers." The Dragon slayer said and they heard Lucy gasp in horror.
"Shit." The Ice Mage cussed, and started to run faster after Natsu.
"I can hear her. We are close."
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Juvia was covered in her own blood, a deep cut in her lip was open again and it was bleeding like there was no tomorrow, the effort made her ribs hurt even more, but she didn't care. She had beaten him so much using her water, as much as her broken body could handle.
When the man was down, his breathing hard and moaning in pain, Juvia was still up and with the adrenalin still running through her body, the pain she felt was nothing. She started to kick him on the stomach as hard as she could.
"You are a scumbag!" She shouted while kicked him again. "You are lucky that Juvia is in Fairy Tail now and we don't kill our enemies." Juvia kicked his crotch and he yelled in pain. "And if I killed you, the gods know that if I did, not a soul would condemn me!" She kicked his crotch once again and the man passed out, but before he did, he heard her say. "Don't you ever mess with a Fairy Tail Mage!"
Seeing that he was passed out, Juvia stumbled all the way across the room, legs shaking and utterly exhausted she leaned on the wall and let herself fall to the ground. It didn't matter if the guards would come in later, she just needed to rest for a moment before taking them all and free the girls.
She just needed to close her eyes for a moment.
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Gray used his magic to knock the door Natsu pointed as where Juvia was down, and then both men entered the room, Lucy followed right behind him. They were surprised with the sight in front of them: Juvia was on the floor, apparently covered in blood, her face pressed on the ground. She had a black eye, cut lip and her clothes were thorn, her breasts barely covered, her skirt was cut so badly that they could see the side of her panties. One of her hands was pressing against her ribs. The three mages and the Exceed could see the bruises on her shoulders, it were purple in the middle and a nasty green color around it.
Across the room there were two people lying on the floor too, but they paid more attention to their companion.
"Juvia." Gray whispered, kneeling in front of her and she didn't seem to hear. He gently touched her arm. Her eyes went wide with the touch and she sat, fast, trying to punch him and then threw water in his direction, but the Ice Mage dodged it: she was weak and slower, otherwise that could've hurt a lot.
"Juvia, it's me!" He grabbed the blunette by the shoulders. "Juvia, it's Gray."
As if she was stepping out of a dream, she stopped moving and finally stared at him, her eyes focusing and lighting up with the mention of his name.
"Gray-sama?" She asked in a whisper. "Are you really here?"
"Yes." He responded her and the woman relaxed her whole body.
"You found Juvia, Gray-sama. I knew you would." Her body went forward to fall over once again, but he catched her before it could reach the floor.
"I got you." Gray gently lowered the floor. He immediately started to take off his white coat to cover her up. He was worried that she was more than beaten up. "Here, Juvia. Put this on."
"It will get all dirty." Juvia whined almost without forces. It appeared that the adrenaline was lowering and she was finally feeling the pain and tiredness once again.
"Don't worry." Gray told the girl kindly. "It's old." She nodded and allowed him to put the coat around her. She didn't like to have to sit again for it and moaned in pain a few times and then Gray started to do the buttons. Whatever happened to her, the fewer people who saw her like that, the best.
"Man…" Gray heard Natsu's voice as he talked to Lucy and the Ice Mage recalled that he was not alone in the room with Juvia. "She did a number on this guy." The dark haired man looked over his shoulder and saw that there was indeed someone lying on the ground. There was some appreciation on the Salamander's voice. "Kick ass."
'That's my girl.' Gray thought with pride and then heard Lucy gasp loudly. When he looked over his shoulder once again, she saw that the blonde was behind the pink haired man, Happy behind the Stellar Mage, protecting himself as well.
"Oh, god. She is dead, Natsu." The blonde said, voice trembling.
Gray cussed inside his mind and returned his attention to the hurt woman in his arms – he didn't even realize that he had embraced her. "Juvia, did he…?" The Ice Mage couldn't bring himself to say. "All he did was to beat you up?"
The girl was a little out of it, but answered anyways, snuggling against the man. "He groped Juvia," she whispered. "and he tried to do more, but Juvia didn't let him. But she couldn't keep him from kissing her." He saw that she lost consciousness once again.
Looking over his shoulder again to stare at the man lying on the floor as anger boiled inside him. Natsu gave two steps towards the man and then kicked the man on the stomach – the Salamander would not have people trying to rape his nakama getting out without some ass kicking –, which made the blonde man moan in pain and open his eyes.
When the Boss saw that there were more people inside the room, he groaned. "Oh, fuck."
"Yes, you are." The Dragon Slayer said and then punched the older man on the face, throwing him a few feet away from him. Lucy yelled his name.
"Natsu." Gray called his friend and when the pink haired boy made a sound that he was listening, the Ice Mage proceeded. "Take Juvia and Lucy out. I need to talk to that guy."
The Dragon Slayer straightened his body and nodded, turning around from the scumbag that couldn't be called a man. He kneeled in front of Gray and Juvia.
"Gray…" The blonde woman tried to talk him out of it.
"Leave him, Lucy." Natsu stopped her. "This is something he has to do."
"But…"
"We'll wait outside." Natsu told the Ice Mage while he picked Juvia up carefully and got up, going to the door. "Do what you have to do." Natsu made Lucy and Happy leave the room. Once they closed the door, Gray got up and turned to look to the man.
"It appears that my little Fairy has a boyfriend." Gray stared with contempt to the man. "And he is angry."
"You haven't seen a thing." The Ice Mage's voice was dark as he did the same Natsu did a few moments before, punching the blonde on the face, but instead of just flying a few feet, he flew to the other side of the room. The Boss groaned in pain and Gray just went after him again. "You'll regret ever touching her."
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Five minutes later, Gray was out of the room, sweating. He looked straight to Natsu's arms where he saw Juvia, with her eyes still closed. He took her from the Dragon Slayer.
"Gray… is he…?" Lucy asked, fearful of the response. There were a few loud noises inside the room and maybe the Ice Mage forgot to keep his cool and did something harsh.
"The bastard is still alive." Gray said with gritted teeth; it was clear that the 'alive status' didn't please him much. "We don't kill, even bastards who deserves it."
The blonde sighed in relief. Lucy looked to Gray's hands and saw that his knuckles were bruised, and she frowned. Why did he…?
The it hit her: he didn't use his magic; he had kicked that bastard's ass with his own strength.
Holding the unconscious Juvia on his arms, he started to take her away from there, and the feeling that she was finally safe with him was too good. She was safe. She was with him.
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AN: I am not going to lie: as I wrote this chapter, I was laughing maniacally while the Boss was beaten.
Thanks to: animegirl115, Medaka-chan, Esthellar, Yukistar, PandaGirl, Summer Éclair, CapriciousKrego, YamixTeaLover, MrsGooglyBear, Marie(You lazy girl! Haha), LilTimy, Akela Rose, superduperizee, otaku03, Pandi, KayaLaLune, Simlop, BrigitteoO, mariarassie, Sarapyon, Jellawesome777, fvfd, DoomedToBeACrazyFanGirlForever, Mrs Murasaki-sama, Chibi Waru-Chan, Piru, Reen, DandelionMoon, kimberlouxxx, cdaqtcherry, tsubasa14, Ississ-Perok, Guest, Duchess K, Ande, heather XD and hellzboywho reviewed! I am sorry for the wait, guys! Love you all!
09/06/2013 ~ BonneyQ