A/N: Yes, I know. It starts off dark. Maybe I should have given a trigger warning? I don't know. I usually don't use them in my stories. I expect my readers to be responsible enough to know whether they need to put a story down for their own sake, and I really don't like spoiling things. I hope you guys enjoy the rest of the edits. This story will only be eight or nine chapters, depending on how I edit the end. We'll have to wait and see.
I'm posting this chapter early for the real narnia. I hope you enjoy!
Lucy regained consciousness after having passed out from the small bit of exertion she'd put on her tired body, and her eyes slowly opened when the acrid stench of something burning filled her nostrils. It was unlike anything she had ever smelled before. It made her stomach churn since there was nothing in it aside from a single glass of water. Those noxious fumes only got stronger the longer she laid there, and she swallowed to suppress the urge to vomit that small bit of nourishment she'd gotten.
"Cover your nose," Cobra growled, keeping his good eye trained on the ensuing battle between the rest of his guild and Rogue. The guy was way too damn powerful, and he knew that they were going to need his help on this one. Cobra might not have cared for Jellal in any sense of the word, but he knew just how strong the Heavenly Body mage was. If even he was having a difficult time taking the Shadow Slayer down, then it was going to be one hell of a fight. "And maybe fix that robe so everyone's not getting an eyeful of your crotch."
Lucy frowned and slowly turned her head at the sound of that voice, her eyes widening in shock when she saw just who was talking to her. "Co... bra?" Her breath caught in her throat when he turned to look at her for a moment before turning back to watch the fight.
'What the hell is Cobra of all people doing here? And… is that Jellal?!'
"Seriously, cover yourself up."
Lucy grit her teeth as she tried to roll herself over, whimpering once she had managed to get onto her side. If she'd actually eaten something recently, or even been even remotely hydrated, she probably would have had the energy to do more than just that pathetic little shift. As it was, she couldn't bring herself to move closer to the bars so she could use her hands to cover herself. It wasn't like it really mattered anyway.
'Not after what Rogue's done to me…'
Cobra snarled and whirled around to glare at Lucy, only to see her shivering and curled in on herself. Her soul was so dissonant when she thought about what Rogue had done, and just the small snippets of her memories that flashed in his own head were enough for Cobra to actually lose his shit. Rage and fury the likes of which he'd never felt before swelled in him, forcing his scales to activate without him even trying.
"I know you're tired, but you've gotta cover your nose, Lucy," he said softly. He knelt on the stairs just outside the cage when her exhausted eyes opened to look at him. "I'm gonna use more poison to eat through the metal, and the fumes alone could kill you if you inhale too much."
Lucy blinked and then looked up to where her hands were bound. She could hardly move as it was. There was no way in hell she'd be able to get her head high enough to cover her nose with her hands. Her arm on the other hand… Lucy closed her eyes and turned her head, burying her nose in the slender appendage and taking shallow breaths to minimize just how much of the toxic air she was taking in.
'Smart,' Cobra thought. He reached up with both clawed hands and channeled a powerful burst of his poison right at the locking mechanism on the door. The metal bubbled and sizzled as poison ate through it, and when it was weakened enough, he sent a solid punch out to make handle crumble. He shot to his feet and opened the door to the cage, rushing inside and over to the still trembling blonde.
Before anything else, Cobra pulled his coat off and gently laid it over her to give her at least a small bit of modesty. "Are you hurt anywhere?"
"M-My… wrists."
"Okay, don't talk," Cobra said as he moved up to look at the shackles. The skin was raw and bloody where it had continuously rubbed against the metal, deep bruises stretched even further up her arms than what he'd experienced when he was in the Tower. There were more bruises on her forearms in the shape of Rogue's hands.
He couldn't stop himself from growling when he heard her thinking about how many times Rogue had tightened them since she kept losing weight, how he'd only fed her two or three times in the two months she'd been held here. Not even the bastards in the Tower had been that cruel.
The sounds coming from him cut off in an instant when she started trembling, causing the chains to rattle against the stone floor. "It's gonna be alright, Lucy," he whispered. "I'll get you outta here."
"Wh-Why… are-"
"I said don't talk." Cobra sighed when her trembling intensified, and slowly reached down to brush her hair from her face. When she looked up at him in shock, he smiled sadly down at her. "What I mean is, rest your voice. I can hear what you're thinking, so you don't need to say anything." When Lucy nodded slowly, he took a deep breath and reached up to grab the shackles.
"They're blocking out my magic. It's why my spirits haven't been able to open their gates and help me…"
Cobra carefully sent his poison into the metal around her wrists, weaving it slowly with as much precision as he could manage so it didn't leak into her wounds. Once he thought he'd eroded the metal enough, he grit his teeth and tore the weakened shackles away from her. A very large part of him wished he'd kept them in place once he saw the mutilated anarchy hidden beneath the metal.
"That bad, huh?" Lucy glanced up at her wrists from watching Cobra nearly turn green when he saw them, and felt… nothing. She saw the torn flesh; how her tendons, muscles, and even small portions of her bones were exposed; how much blood was slowly seeping from the wounds. It was like looking at something in a horror movie, but it felt just as real as if that's all it was. "That's… That's not the worst he's done, Cobra. I'll be fine…"
Cobra didn't want to know, he really fucking didn't. But he couldn't stop Lucy from thinking about it.
Apparently, aside from violating her repeatedly in any way he saw fit, Rogue had been the one to take her virginity by force.
One week later, Rogue had decided he didn't want to deal with his slave getting pregnant because he couldn't keep his dick to himself. He strapped her down, and cut out whatever he needed to, so he wouldn't have to worry about a pregnancy, with only a little bit of ice to numb her stomach before he got to work.
Cobra had no clue how Lucy wasn't catatonic with the amount of trauma she'd been forced to endure, but it didn't matter right then. She was far from safe while she was still in this place, and he refused to let her down when she had clearly never given up.
"Okay, I'm gonna pick you up now," he said, already knowing that there was a scar on her abdomen and not an open wound from where Rogue had performed that disgusting surgery. "Don't freak out on me."
"It's okay, Cobra. I trust you." Lucy smiled sadly up at the Poison Slayer when he jolted and stared down at her in surprise. "You're with Jellal and Meredy, which means you're okay in Erza's book. If she trusts you, then so do I."
"You're pretty intuitive, y'know that?" He carefully pulled her into his arms. He readjusted his coat and buttoned it closed so there was no chance of her body being exposed, then stood up and internally frowned when he felt just how light she was.
As Cobra carried her out of the cage, Lucy leaned in closer and took a shaky breath while her emotions finally came crashing through her. Just that simple act of passing through the door she'd been staring at for months was enough to break down one of the walls she'd created to keep herself sane. She gripped his shirt and sniffled, and when he pulled her just a fraction of an inch closer, Lucy finally broke. "It's not just the fact that they're here with you, Cobra…" she silently told him, "You wouldn't have tried to help me if you didn't want to."
Cobra nodded and crouched down behind a pillar far away from the raging battle, wincing when he heard Angel yelp in pain.
"He's going to slaughter them."
"Have some faith," Cobra hissed. His eyebrow shot up in surprise when she started thinking about how difficult it had been for Natsu to defeat Future Rogue in X791, and the fact that he was stronger than Crime Sorciere knew because he'd killed Sting and taken his power.
Lucy wished that she could move so she could just go after Rogue and finish this once and for all. She would use the last of her strength to tackle his sadistic ass to the ground and snap his neck if she could. She frowned when Cobra snorted, then looked up to see him grinning down at her.
"While it's fucking hilarious to picture you snapping anyone's neck, even if that cockstain deserves much worse for what he did to you, they've got this handled," Cobra said. He pulled her head back to his chest and brushed his fingers through her hair. Lucy needed him a whole hell of a lot more than his guild mates did, if the way their souls were sending out violent battle cries was any indication. "Just let it out, Lucy," he said against her hair. "I'll keep you safe, alright?"
Lucy nodded and held onto Cobra as tightly as she could manage, shrieking in terror when he quickly pinned her to the ground. Her eyes shot open in fear only to see his face hovering an inch above hers, and a brilliant white light flying mere feet above them. It was quickly followed by a shadowy claw arcing down through the air, aiming right for Cobra's back. She gasped and clenched her eyes shut, waiting for it to pierce through him and into her, but she was jostled to the side while his arms barred around her frail body. "Please… Don't let him hurt me anymore, Cobra…"
Cobra heard Lucy whimper as they rolled across the floor, and he pulled her along with him to hide behind another pillar while Racer and Hoteye drew Rogue's attention back to themselves. "I promise, Lucy. He won't hurt you ever again. I'll protect you." He kept her close to his chest, hearing just how quickly her heart raced while her tears soaked through his shirt. "I'll get you out of here when it's safe, okay?"
Lucy grimaced and nodded, curling herself closer to him as more explosions sounded out across the room.
'I can't go back in that cage… I can't… I'd rather be dead than—'
"Shh," Cobra whispered. He brought a hand to her hair while he lowered his nose to her head once more. Even with where she's just been, she smelled heavenly. Terrified, but still heavenly. "I won't let that happen. We'll get you to a hospital once he's dead. They'll take care of you there."
His brow furrowed when the thought of doctors or scalpels being anywhere near her had her soul screeching in terror, the trembling in her limbs intensifying by the second. "They won't hurt y..."
'Don't leave me alone… Please, don't leave me alone… I trust you… Not them… Please… Please Cobra… Please! They'll cut me open and hurt me. All those knives and masks. Don't leave me, Cobra…'
Lucy's grip on his shirt tightened as her silent tears fell more insistently, and Cobra sighed and shook his head. "You got it, Lucy," he said. "I won't leave you." He smiled sadly down at the head of golden hair that had lost its shine. "I'll protect you."
There was no way in hell he was going to let her down. Angel had been messed up for a while after what she'd gone through in the Tower - and she was still afraid of being alone in dark rooms because of it - but he and the rest of their little fucked up group had been there for her when she needed it.
Cobra wasn't exactly the nicest guy out there, but he'd do what he could in Lucy's case. She was a goddamn fighter, and she deserved to come back from what had happened to her.
What caught him by surprise though was the fact that, even while she was shaking like a leaf with fear pouring off of her in waves, Lucy was running through different strategies that they could possibly use based on her own knowledge of everyone's abilities. Granted, some of it was outdated, and what she considered their strongest attacks were actually further down the list as each of their own abilities increased over the years, but it was astounding just how many contingencies Lucy came up with in a matter of seconds.
'If none of that works, there's always Plan N,' Lucy thought with a fond warmth settling in her chest.
"What's Plan N?" Cobra snorted when a very clear picture of Natsu setting everything on fire painted itself in her head. Echoes of countless times every plan she'd come up with had been thrown by the wayside because the Fire Slayer couldn't control himself. "N for Natsu, huh?"
Lucy nodded. "Plan N is essentially total destruction and mayhem. Sadly, it was always the most effective… No matter how much rent money it cost me at the time."
The topmost portion of the pillar they were hiding behind exploded, and Lucy felt Cobra tense and push off of the ground again. They flew through the air and landed roughly on the ground, knocking the wind out of her. When her eyes opened again there was a terrifying roar that sounded across the room, and she quickly turned her head to see the other members of Crime Sorciere facing off against Rogue.
Several gashes streaked across his face and stomach, but he was still standing. Angel and Racer were on the ground, trying to stand back up and continue fighting. Meredy looked ready to pass out. Midnight was nowhere to be seen. And Jellal and Hoteye were sending attack after attack at the enraged Slayer. She saw a glint of metal on Rogue's belt, and her heart sunk when she realized the he had her keys. They weren't on the table like they had been before everyone showed up.
Cobra furrowed his brow when he saw Lucy looking over at the fight, hearing her determination to just end the battle herself. "Don't be fucking stupid," he hissed as he hovered over her. "You're not strong enough to even fucking move, let alone do any damage."
"I might not be able to move, but I don't need to for this to work." Based on what she'd heard from both Erza and Natsu when they had fought against Cobra, his Soul Listening magic meant he could hear everything that happened in a person's soul - all the way down to deeply ingrained memories. She'd been told that he was able to amplify those sounds and use them to attack people, and hopefully that would be enough to get the job done.
"True, but what..." Cobra paused when Lucy slowly loosened her grip on his shirt while she smiled hopefully up at him. "It won't work."
"It will. Just trust me, okay?" When Cobra slowly nodded, Lucy took a deep breath then laced her fingers together with his. "Does it hurt when you hear someone's pain?"
"Depends on how much of it there is," Cobra answered as he looked down at their joined hands. "Usually, no. But with this? Most likely."
"I'm sorry…"
"Don't be," he chuckled. "If it does what it needs to, I'll be perfectly fucking fine with a headache. Full disclosure though… I could throw up if it's too bad." He couldn't help but let his smile widen just a little when he heard the barest remnant of a laugh rasping from between her lips. "Do your thing."
Lucy nodded, then closed her eyes. "Wait until he's close enough…" When she only heard a grunt in response, Lucy forcefully broke down the walls she'd created around the worst parts of the past two months. Everything she'd kept hidden in the darkest recesses of her heart, mind, and soul came crashing down on her, making it feel as though there was an anvil crushing her chest.
Raped. Violated. Tortured. Beaten.
Cobra watched as tears began streaming down her pale and harrowed face, and his head began pounding with just how loudly Lucy's soul screeched in agony.
No chance to bear a child. Shackled. Malnourished.
Rogue ripped everything from her. He took her future.
Lucy gasped when she felt that deep connection with her spirits for the first time in two months. Instead of sending her comfort like they normally would have, it seemed that each of them knew just what she was trying to do. Their pain and anguish flowed through that bond, amplifying her own when she realized that they must have been forced to watch everything she had to endure.
She tugged on all fourteen invisible threads that linked her own soul to her spirits, and whimpered when it felt like she was being ripped apart from within. She refused to stop though, and instead tapped into her Second Origin to find the power she needed. Those little threads began to glow in her mind's eye, and Lucy poured more magic into them.
'Please… Please help me…'
Cobra ground his teeth together when he heard Lucy's spirits. Hundreds upon hundreds of memories washed through him, filled with so much pain and suffering that he thought he'd lose his goddamn mind. If that wasn't bad enough, the memories that they all had of the events of her torture at Rogue's hands overlapped instead of combining, increasing just what he was pulling in time and time again as though they were all entirely different memories. One thing was for sure, Lucy was a goddamn genius for thinking of something like this, and the fact that she was somehow able to bring her spirits into it - even though it was giving him a splitting fucking headache - gave him hope that this would really be the end of it.
His eye widened when she didn't stop with her spirits' pain, and the air rushed from his lungs when her distant memories flowed to the surface; her childhood, every time she'd been captured and tortured while she was in Fairy Tail, and most importantly the day she'd sacrificed a key while she was fighting against that demon.
"Fuck…" he growled. "Lucy, we've gotta do it now."
She grimaced and bit her lower lip, focusing solely on pouring every ounce of herself into what they were about to do. Her spirits knew what this meant, and it only increased their own anguish. Slowly, she opened her eyes to see Cobra looking worriedly down at her. She could see how much pain he was really in, not to mention that he had a very clear picture of everything she'd gone through.
"I'm sorry this is hurting you…"
She tightened her grip on his hands and took a deep breath as she turned her head to face where Rogue was still fighting against Jellal. Her eyes widened when she saw what Natsu had described to her so long ago. 'White Shadow Dragon Mode?!' The black portion of his hair was pulled away from his eye, revealing the rest of the scar that stretched across his face, the right half of his body pitch black.
"Rogue! Help me!" she screeched, not bothering to hide how she was sobbing or caring that her throat felt like it was on fire from how loudly she'd yelled.
Rogue froze and turned to see Lucy pinned to the ground beneath that pathetic Poison Slayer. He growled as he watched Cobra's head lower to her neck, his nose and lips brushing along her skin. No one touched the little bitch except for him. He'd been the only one to know every inch of her body, and he planned on keeping it that way.
He bared his teeth and began running over to rip Cobra off of his little slave, his body fueled by rage and adrenaline. She was his to torture and destroy for all the pain she had caused, and he wouldn't let anyone take that away from him. The fact that she had called out to him in the first place for help only inflated his desire to rend that Slayer limb from limb; if she didn't want these people to rescue her, then clearly that meant he had finally broken her.
The closer Lucy's keys got as Rogue ran towards them, the stronger that connection with her spirits felt. The stronger their pain and sadness became. She could hear Loke's voice roaring in her head as he tried to break through his gate and protect her like he had promised to do. There was nothing to be done about it now though. This was the only way for Rogue to finally be defeated once and for all.
She kept her eyes on Rogue as he prepared an attack to take Cobra out, and sobbed as a sense of crushing despair swept over her again.
"Tell me when, Lucy," Cobra whispered directly into her ear. He had to rely on her for this one, because he couldn't focus on any other souls around him while he pulled every agonized cry from her into himself. He felt like his head was about to explode, but he had to go along with her plan now that it had started.
Closer and closer, Lucy watched as Rogue closed that distance in what seemed like slow motion. Light and Shadow magic swirled around his hand as he started the incantation for the spell he was about to use, and Lucy slammed her eyes shut. "Now."
Cobra opened his eye and sharply turned his head to see Rogue heading right for them. He let the dissonant screeching and wailing in Lucy's soul fill him completely, and squeezed her hands when he felt her magic swelling from her soul.
Every mournful and despairing sob, every shout of pain.
The countless hours of screaming each of her spirits remembered from the day Rogue had cut her open and taken away any hope of her having a family.
Lucy's fury that roiled deep within her, roaring to life louder than the dragon he'd faced.
He pulled all of it into himself and sent it out in a cacophonous shockwave, hitting Rogue dead on. Normally, Cobra only used bursts of his Sound magic to toy with his opponents, but this time was different. He kept pushing those sounds out, adding in his own pain and suffering from the years of torment in the Tower, his own guilt and anguish over the things he wished he could change.
Lucy's body tensed, her grip on Cobra's hands tightening as a strangled sob escaped her. The attack they sent out was deafening, but she still opened her eyes when she heard Rogue scream and drop to the ground. She watched as he writhed in pain from Cobra's multicolored waves of soul sounds. He clawed at his face, and tore into the wounds the others had already inflicted on him. When his eye locked onto hers, she sneered. "Burn in hell, you son of a bitch."
With a dark chuckle, Cobra sent out a stronger burst of his magic and watched with a sick sense of pleasure as Rogue's head quite literally exploded. Little bits of brain and fragments of his skull flew in every direction, some of it landing only a few feet away from himself and Lucy. He cut off his magic, watching as Rogue's body laid twitching on the ground, then chuckled triumphantly and turned to look down at Lucy.
His laughter died in an instant when he saw her, all of the air rushing from his lungs and his head swimming. Blood poured from her ears, nose, and mouth, and her heart was beating much slower than it should be.
'I knew it would be this way… I gave it everything I had… Rogue's… He's really dead…'
"Lucy?" Cobra whispered, earning only a tremulous and watery smile in response. He heard it all, what he had somehow missed before. Channeling her spirits' pain the way she had, it hadn't only used up her magic. It had sucked the very life out of her. "No…"
After how hard she'd fought. After everything she had gone through at that bastard's hands… She didn't deserve to die.
But what the hell could he do? With her bony hands still clasped in his, so cold and fragile, he wasn't sure if he could even let her go to try and help her. How could he even help her in the first place?
She was so small, lying there beneath him. But this wasn't supposed to happen. They'd won, and now she was bleeding out in his arms.
What the fuck was he supposed to do?
It wasn't often that Cobra allowed himself to rely on others. It had never really been the kind of person he was. Even though it had been years since he and the others had gotten out of prison and had started working with Jellal and Meredy, he'd been adamant about not using anyone as a crutch. He was still Cobra, after all. Still the famed Poison Dragon Slayer, feared by quite a few people, even if his reputation was becoming little more than scary campfire stories by this point.
But when he looked down into Lucy's dulling eyes and saw the bloody, trembling smile she gave him, he didn't know what the fuck he could do anymore. All the confidence he had disappeared, and for the first time in a great many years, he felt just like a small, scared little boy.
And just like that, he knew he couldn't do this alone.
"Jellal!" Cobra shouted. She coughed and his eye didn't close when her blood spattered on his cheeks. "Jellal, help! Hurry!"
