Chapter 7:

Gasping For Air

Glorious tension mounted in the room as Lucy said those unbelievably pain-filled words.

"Don't lie, Master. Lying is bad."

"Why would you say that, my child?"

"'No one needs Lucy-chan. Nothing but a pointless waste of space. An empty sack of skin using up precious oxygen'." She quoted in a voice that didn't seem her own.

"Who told you this?"

"Why, daddy-dearest, of course." She giggled. "He taught Lucy-chan lots of things about how she is only useful as a pawn and that she doesn't deserve to live otherwise." Her voice, which had reverted to something childish, came back to it's previous depth. "No one needs Lucy. That's why Lucy has me. I make the hurt go away." No... Lucy's mind was conscious though, and she could hear what her body was saying. "No?" it asked out loud.

No. When I wake up, I hurt. My hands are covered with blood and I'm scared.

"But I make the bad men go away." It replied out loud again.Earning strange looks from their audience.

"Lucy? What are you talking about. I don't understand." Master's brows furrowed in confusion.

Lucy's words came out on a hiss. "Mustn't presume you are important in this equation. It means nothing to us." Wrong! Master means everything!

"No, no Lucy. It means nothing to us. I am all you need."

As Lucy's internal argument continued, everyone stepped outside, following Makarov out into the hall to where Lisanna was tapping her foot impatiently.

"Master. What do we do now?" Erza inquired, a little more than shaken at Lucy's display of clear insanity.

"Well we know she's still in there. So whatever has her doesn't have complete control." He mused.

"And we know that, how?" Natsu asked, not grasping the obvious yet again.

"She wasn't talking to us, which means she was talking to something inside her head." Gray stated, confirmed by everyone's nods. Just as the thought came clear into their heads, a screech came from the Infirmary.

"NO! You mustn't Lucy!" She screamed, rocking back and forth in her chair, tipping it off balance. As she descended to the floor her head slammed against a bench, resulting in an unconscious Lucy laying side ways tied to a chair. As Cronus observed her, he noticed her full breasts about to pop out of her shirt, and much against the wishes of the desire rising in the pit of his belly, he went over to the chair and replaced it in an upright position. Much to the disappointment of Laxus and Gray, and maybe a little bit Gajeel and Natsu, but they'd never admit it.

"Right!" The master declared, clapping his hands together. "Clearly she's unpredictable, so we're going to set a guard on her so we can have an alert whenever she loses control again. My guess is when she wakes again, she'll be the normal Lucy. Do we have an volunteers?" He looked around expectantly. Laxus, Gajeel and Gray stuck their hands in the air as soon as 'volunteers' was mentioned. Understanding their pervy thoughts, Makarov completely overlooked them, glancing back to where Cronus crouched next to Lucy, cleaning the open cut on the side of her temple. Perfect. He thought to himself. Mirajane will be so proud of me, he smirked.

"Cronus!" He grunted at the sound of his name. "You're going to be our alert system, and will be Lucy's watchman till we are able to determine the cause for this change."

"You ever think that maybe she just deserves a little justice...?" He muttered, still swabbing the wound.

"Not this Lucy's kind of justice." He replied, though a small angry tick appeared below his eye as Cronus gave no indication that he had been paying any attention at all. Watchman,huh? Cronus thought to himself. Sure, let's see where this goes.

Lucy came to a few hours later with a killer headache, warmly tucked into her bed.

"Ugh..." she groaned, raising a hand to her aching temple.

"You're awake, huh? Took you long enough. Are you you or the other you?" Cronus asked, peeking over the top of her couch.

"That made no sense." She muttered.

"Are you the nice you or the mean you?" Getting up, and walking around to the back of the couch and leaning against it.

"Depends on whether you're going to get me some water or not." Cronus grinned at that and rose to walk to the kitchen. Returning with a large glass of water, grunting in thanks Lucy took it and drank, not noticing as a small droplet escaped from her thirsty mouth and slowly and sultrily made it's way down her chin, rolled over her neck and slanted into the valley of her breasts, Cronus watched every step of the journey, and his mouth dried as he witnessed it reach its final destination.

"What?" Lucy asked feeling across her chest to see if she'd dripped any. You won't find it... he thought, though I could help... Cronus chuckled to himself, nah! I value my life.

"Nothing. Just lost in thought." Lucy, seeming to accept that, shrugged as she climbed out of bed and heading to the bathroom. Cronus stayed in his position and listened for the shower to be turned on before moving. Creeping silently to the bathroom, he pressed his ear against the door and listened to Lucy's sigh on contentment as she stepped under the spray. Ok! Heading to the kitchen Cronus placed a frying pan on the element, cracked some eggs into a bowl, added some cream and seasonings and poured it into the pan. If I'm gonna get any information out of that girl, I'll need to put her in a good mood.

Turning off the water, Lucy stepped out of the shower and into the steam-filled bathroom. Her wet hair she pulled back into a braid that hung over her shoulder, the tips of the strands reaching the crest of her breasts, and she wrapped a towel around herself after drying off. Taking a deep breath, while trying to summon the warmth towards her as she slid open the door and stepped out into the bedroom/ dining room/ lounge room. Is that... food? She thought, taking a whiff of what smelt distinctly like egg and seasoning. Walking over to her dresser, she pulled out her draws, searching for something suitable to wear, finally deciding on a plain blue t-shirt with a black mini skirt. After changing, she stepped into the kitchen to find Cronus standing in front of her stove, the long sleeves of his black shirt were rolled up to his elbows, but his entire demeanour looked relaxed. As if he belonged there. And she had to admit, she didn't mind the thought. As her eyes scanned his back, she noticed how muscular his shoulders were, restraining herself from walking over and running her hands across and down his back, her eyes continued their surveillance halting at his tight, taught butt before continuing downwards. Not bad... she thought with a smirk.

"You know, it's rude to stare." Cronus said, not turning from the stove. Flustered about being caught Lucy stuttered "Wha- I wasn't-!" clearing her throat "What're cooking?"

"Omelette."

"Clearly, what's in it?"

"Pepper, salt, tomatoes, and bacon." Lucy drooled at the thought of eating something that sounded so delicious.

"Mmmmm!" She moaned, it was music to his ears but he'd always hoped that it would be from something else. "I love tomatoes. Especially when they're whole and warm and pop in your mouth when you bite into them. The juices are so yummy when they're released in your mouth." (A/N: That's actually my opinion of tomatoes. I didn't understand how sexual that sounded till I wrote it down...)

Oh my god! I know she didn't mean it like that,but... he could feel himself getting hard just at the thought of himself releasing in her mouth. But what if she did?

Looking at him side long, Lucy noticed as he tensed up after what she'd said. And she hadn't meant it to sound like that, but then again, she wasn't exactly hating the effect.

"Something wrong?" Lucy asked, snapping Cronus out of his thoughts, he returned to his cooking.

"Nope. Just thinking."

"I'm sure." She said, tipping her head back, allowing a full view of her neck as she flicked her hair behind her shoulders, and once again his thoughts wandered. Oh man! How I'd love to kiss that slender neck, hear her moan in pleasure as I pounded her into that ridiculously soft mattress.

"You're burning the food." She commented. Springing into action his lifted the pan off the element and slide the slightly black tinted omelette into a plate. Lucy sat down at the small table as he placed it in front of her. "My hero." She smiled, and dug in.

"So.."

"Just ask." Lucy said through her food.

"What?"

"Just ask."

"Ask what?"

"Whatever you've been thinking about since you met me."

"Umm... ok. What happened to you?"

"When?"

"When you got whatever that thing is inside your head."

"That's a long and hard one. You sure you wanna hear it?"

"You're a writer, you'll make it interesting for me."

"Glad to hear it. It was my last mission with Team Natsu. And it wasn't pretty. We were coming to take down a dark guild, which would usually be simple enough, but there was this guy, Dyst- Dyxt or something. He wasn't like the others. He had some power I've never seen before, I don't even know what it was, it could've been forcefields he threw at us, or wind. But whatever it was it stopped us from moving all together. He took a liking to me and kept me conscious while he tortured the others. Started with Gray, then Erza, then Happy, then Natsu. He liked listening to us scream, to me scream. When they were all unconscious he made me look at them, told me it was my fault they were hurt, that I was weak." The scenes flashed in her view as Lucy retold the story, "he took something out of his pocket and held it at the back of my neck, something black and wiggling, and he dropped it there. I could feel it, slimy and smooth, wriggling across my skin. There was a blinding pain as it used its teeth of tear away at my skin and wriggle inside the hole it'd made. Eventually the hole healed, but I could feel it, under my skin, slithering around. The last thing he said to me was 'till we meet again, my dearest tainted angel.'"

Cronus was silent. He'd been right, she sure could tell a story well. But it hadn't been what he'd expected, not the beating she'd witnessed, not the creepy asshole who had called her his 'tainted angel.' Cronus stared at Lucy as Lucy stared at the floor.

"Don't worry, Luce. We'll get it out."

"I don't want it out." She muttered.