"Natsu! Calm down!" Gray shouted, standing up from his seat, sending the piece of furniture tumbling to the floor behind him.
Natsu abruptly stopped pacing and looked down at the worn wood, his hands clenching to fists at his sides, his shoulders trembling.
"Calm down...?" His voice was dangerously low and he looked at Gray from the corner of his eyes, causing the ice mage to flinch at the anger flickering through his rival slash friend's brown orbs. "How the hell can you expect me to calm down? Lucy's somewhere, participating in a game that could most definitely cost her life! And you're telling me to calm down?"
Gray gulped and looked off to the side, his hands shaking. Never before had he seen such rage on the dragon slayers face – not even when facing the most vile of villains did he get so worked up.
"Natsu, I agree that this is awful, but Gray's right, getting worked up will do us no good at all." Erza said, pushing her back off from the wall and walking to stand in front of the pissed off fire mage. "We need to be able to think properly if we are ever going to get Lucy back."
Natsu grit his teeth and clenched his fists tighter, his knuckles burning whiter and whiter. His shocks of pink hair shadowed his eyes and made it hard to read his expression, but anyone within close proximity could tell that he was angry. No, they could tell that he was furious.
"Natsu…" Happy whispered, taking a step towards his dragon slayer partner, but not daring to go any closer than that.
"Levy." Erza turned away from Natsu to look at the blue haired script mage instead. "How are things going?"
Levy just sighed and dropped her book to the table, the leather back hitting the worn wood with a soft thump. The blue haired girl looked pityingly Erza and then slapped the busted up lacrima video player.
"No use." She said. "I know a lot about lacrima from the books I've read and I know that if we had a working connection we would definitely be able to trace it back to the source, but Natsu sure done a number on this thing. I get can't get a hold of any wavelengths."
"I see." The redhead closed her eyes and folded her arms across her armoured chest. "So we need a working lacima video." She then turned to Gray. "Gray, we're going on a mission. If we found this in a dark guilds base, maybe other dark guilds will have one."
"Um, perhaps." Gray agreed, looking back to Erza but avoiding Natsu at all costs. "But which dark guild will we target?"
"Doesn't matter." The re-quip mage then spun on her heels and began to walk towards the guild's double doors. "Natsu, if you have calmed down enough, meet with us at the train station in two hours. Mira, if you wouldn't mind, could you make us a list of all the known dark guilds around Fiore please?"
Mirajane, who had been behind the bar, silently listening to the teams conversation suddenly snapped to attention and looked at her old rival's back, nodding softly before sporting a weak smile.
"Yes, of course Erza." She said, her voice, like every other in the guild, lacking its usual cheer. "I'll get right on it."
"Thank you." Erza reached the door and stood in the low glow of the setting evening sun, not turning her head when she next spoke. "Natsu, Gray, I also suggest we search the town from which Lucy disappeared, there may be something there."
She paused and tilted her head over her shoulder, smiling softly at her teammates.
"And don't worry, we'll definitely find her."
Surprisingly, it was Natsu who was first to arrive at the train station, watching nervously, waiting for his comrades to show up. Despite his motion sickness, he was eager to get on the train and begin looking for Lucy, this was the most they had done for seven days after all.
"Natsu, you're early." Said boy looked up at the voice and heard the familiar clank of metal as Erza drew nearer, stopping in front of him. Gray was just behind her, his shirt still on, as it had been since Lucy's disappearance.
"Of course I'm early." The dragon slayer grumbled. "Now are we going or not?"
He was already halfway to the docking train as he spoke the words and soon enough the others followed, Happy deciding to stay at the guild to help Charle and Wendy do research. The blue cat felt he was more useful there, after all.
The group of free found themselves a table on the train and felt their heart strings tug painfully as they glanced at the one empty seat beside Natsu. Lucy would usually sit there and Natsu could almost see her, back leant against the ratty material and book in her hand. He sighed and decided to look out the window instead.
Wendy had done her Toia on Natsu today, at his request, so that he could focus entirely. He didn't want to miss anything at all.
"Where are we going first, Erza?" Gray asked, looking at the mage beside him. She cast her glance at the dragon slayer briefly before looking Gray in the eye.
"The town that Lucy was last seen in. With Natsu's nose we may be able to uncover something that others didn't" The girl replied.
"And where is this place?" Gray continued.
"Umbras. A larger city about thirteen stops from Magnolia. We'll probably have to stay the night, we won't be able to cover the whole place in just one afternoon."
Gray nodded and the carriage fell into silence. As they came to the next stop, none of them noticed a blonde man get off, or his bright blue eyes glancing briefly at them before he looked back to the conductor.
"Alexander, long time no see." The chubby man said to the blonde boy, a huge grin plastered across his face. "How's your guild?"
Alexander smiled softly and handed the conductor his ticket to be punched.
"Fine, sir." He replied.
The conductors grin then dropped and was replaced with a look of pity as he handed back the young teens train pass.
"And, the search for your brother?" His voice was quieter, so as passer by's didn't eavesdrop. Alexander forced a weak, sad smile at his acquaintance.
"Not so good." He said. "It seems as if no-one's ever heard of him."
"I'm sorry lad," The conductor sympathised. "I'm sure you'll find him" He then chuckled. "After all, if there's one thing I know about Carter Hound, he doesn't give up too easily."
Alexander smiled again before hopping down the steps of the vehicle and out onto the patform. He took in a deep breath and then let it out again.
"Um, I know."
Fun fact: Umbus (The name of the town team Natsu are going to) Means 'Shadows' in Latin. Google Translate told me that XD
Did you like out little guest star at the end? Only four more games to go until we reach the semi-finals and begin to draw 'The Game' to a close. It seems so surreal, I've never got this close to an ending of one of my stories. Just look at Shrouded In Shadows and Vending Machine!
The 30 chapter mark! I would love to say a big thank you to all of you who reviewed (Or just read) for helping me get this far, and don't worry, I'm not going to abandon this fic anytime soon!