Natsu and his team along with Sting and Rogue barged through the doors of the mansion, they had all been preparing and expecting a fight as soon as the doors opened, but what they got was much worse.
A bloodcurdling scream could be heard throughout the house, not just to the fine tuned ears of the dragon slayers, but to everyone else as well. Before Erza could come up with a strategy both Sting and Natsu tore off through the building.
"Lucy!" Natsu screamed as he rounded a corner of the house and into a large hallway with lots of doors. He glanced down, noticing the sight of blood, as if it the thing that had bled had been dragged down the hallway.
His fists clenched and he heard another scream. Without hesitation he tore through the hallway and to the only white door there. With a heavy kick Natsu burst through the door. His frames blazing in rage at the sight that lay before him.
There was a man, the same man they had been tasked with capturing, kneeling over Lucy's crumpled and bleeding form.
The rest of the group was quickly behind him and they all gasped at the scene before them. Erza put a hand to her mouth in shock and Gray clenched his fists in anger while a few tears slipped from his eyes. Happy stood next to Gray, his eyes wide in shock and fear as he stared at his friend on the floor. The dragon slayers growled menacingly and slowly began to advance.
"You hurt Lucy. Prepare to die." Natsu gargled, his body turning to scales as flames seared the walls and every footstep he made left a burning mark in the floor.
Asher had turned to face the mages as soon as Natsu spoke. Though he hadn't seemed surprised at all to see them.
"You're too late. She's been used up! Sucked dry of magical power by yours truly! She is now just a mere, weak, dying human." Asher smirked, proud of himself.
Natsu, Sting and Rogue growled in response and Erza and Gray readied to fight as well.
Just as the two other mages were about to step forward to help, the demon shadow appeared, hissing and growling like a feral cat, making the two mages freeze.
Natsu, Sting and Rogue glanced back but Erza shook her head at them. "Don't worry, we'll handle this guy!"
Natsu modded his thanks and then rushed forward towards Asher, not giving the man a second to think. Asher simply moved his hand and Natsu's flames vanished, making him sputter to a stop in shock.
Sting did the same thing after Natsu slowed, advancing with lightning speed to land a punch. But again, Asher merely waved his hand and his magic disappeared.
Rogue stood back, watching as Natsu tried a Dragon's Roar on the guy, noticing that he did nothing but flick his wrist. And that was when Rogue realized that the air in the room was getting less stuffy. With wide eyes he watched as Sting sent a Roar at Asher., only this time he realized that the magic they were shooting at him wasn't disappearing.
"Stop! He's taking your magic!" Rogue shouted and all at once everyone in the room froze.
Gray and Erza glanced at each other, wondering if that meant them too. But before they could think to ask the demon shadow was on them once more and back to the fight they went, Gray trying to freeze the shadows movements while Erza slashed at him using her purgatory armor.
Natsu, Sting and Rogue looked at each other, nodding as they communicated with their eyes before racing forward, all delivering a punch to Asher without their magic. This caught Asher by surprise and he couldn't help but smirk a bit.
Then with his eyes shut his body began to glow a bright, vibrant light and Natsu, Gray, Erza, and Happy gasped as they recognized the slow patterns that began making their way over his body in light.
"You stole Lucy's magic!" Happy shouted from the air, since he was trying to find the Safeway, and easiest way to get Lucy to safety.
Natsu growled angrily, and Sting and Rogue glanced up at Happy in confusion. "That's not Lucy's magic?" Sting spoke. The blue cat nodded, puffing his chest out with pride. "That's Lucy's new magic, she learned it while in the forest after she left Sabertooth."
Before they could say more and vibrant gold light shot out, making the slayers have barely enough time to dodge it. They flared at the man and dodged his attacks swiftly. Natsu was the only one that knew just how insanely powerful Lucy was, so if he got his hands on her power, it could only mean he's now insanely powerful.
With an intense glare, Natsu ran forward throwing swift, heated punches into the lighted mans gut as he grunted in pain. Natsu was pushed back after quite a few blows and the light grazed and burnt his arm causing him to cry out slightly in pain.
Sting and Rogue attacked next, using one of their unison raids and hit the man in the gut with it. Sending Asher flying back into a wall and Natsu looked over at them, nodding in acknowledgment at their combined strength.
He noticed Happy had grabbed the still limp Lucy and he breathed a sigh of relief, happy to know she was out of harms way now. Before he had time to think anymore about Lucy yet he dodged another light attack from the wizard, noticing that it was veering off course or getting weaker.
Natsu caught Asher glaring at the demon fighting with Erza and Gray and looked back to see Erza slice through the demons body. 'Maybe they're connected,' he thought to himself as an idea formed in his head.
"Rogue! Sting!" Natsu shouted, running towards the two dragon slayers, "we have to do a unison raid all together at the same time that Erza and Gray do one!"
He looked back to see if they had heard him and was relieved to see both the ice and requip mage nod in agreement. He nodded back slightly before turning to see Sting and Rogue nod in determination.
"On the count of three! One! Two! Three!l" Natsu shouted, gathering every last ounce of magic he could muster as he cheeks puffed out.
"FIRE DRAGON ROAR!"
"WHITE DRAGON HOLY BREATH!"
"SHADOW DRAGON ROAR!"
"ICE MAKE: CANON!"
"REQUIP: GIANT ARMOR: DE-MALEVO-LANCE!"
As the magic was released all at once, Asher and the demon fell. Neither one of them had time to move or make a sound as the demon faded and Asher lay, dead on the floor.
Happy flew down from where he had been floating above them. "Is everyone alright?" He asked, concern in his voice.
Everyone nodded and Natsu turned to his best friend. "Happy, where's Lucy?" Happy frowned and looked down but flew up to a ledge, high up and away from the fight, that was thick enough to hold Lucy and brought her down, setting the limp girl gently on the floor.
Everyone ran to her side immediately and they all knelt around her. Gray had stripped off his shirt during the fight and was now separating pieces of it, freezing them to various cuts and lacerations on her body.
Natsu burned others that were too deep to they just with a cloth and flinched when he saw just how cut up her stomach was.
The newest cut was along her abdomen, it looked as though it had just been given as it flowed steadily with blood. "We need to get out of here," Natsu said to Erza, who nodded in agreement.
Carefully, Natsu picked Lucy up bridal style and carried her out the room. "Natsu," Sting said, "there are others here."
Natsu froze and sniffed the air, listening as well and growled, realizing Sting was right.
They turned and walked down the hallway, following it to the last door. When they opened it they noticed a flight of stairs leading down into darkness. It made Natsu's skin crawl as they trudged carefully down into a damp dungeon.
The teams eyes widened in shock as they took in the rows of cells, some had bones and others had blood stains. But the worst part was the feeling of complete and utter helplessness that they all felt as soon as they stepped off the last step.
They were about to walk forward when Lucy slowly woke and blinked her eyes looking around slowly. Natsu sighed in relief, smiling as he opened his mouth to speak. Stopping when Lucy let out a scream that he knew would haunt him for the rest of his life.
"KILL ME PLEASE! DON'T TAKE ME BACK TO THE CELL! I WANT TO DIE!"
!X!
Sorry it took me a while to update this! I hope you like it!