Leo had been walking through the town minding his own business when he saw Lucy- Natsu's partner run inbetween some buildings being discreetly followed by three men in scarlet robes and got a funny feeling that the Stellar mage was in trouble and decided to follow and lend a hand if that was the case.

It wasn't that he liked the young woman. In fact he had a bad tendency to ignore her since Natsu first brought her to the guild over a year in a half ago. Stellar mages bugged him in ways that most mages didn't.

They thought that just because they had contracts with the constellations and could weild their power that they could do whatever they wanted with them. Like they weren't alive or could feel pain and though he got the impression that Lucy was different and genuinely cared for her contracted constellations- he was still wary of her for other reasons. Going out of his way to mask his presence from her everytime she got close.

He worried that if he didn't she would find out the truth about him and try to bind him in a contract through force. But that was neither here nor there as he slipped between the buildings after the men in the hooded robes.

He was careful to stay at a stealthy distance so that he could observe and nearly knocked over a garbage can that he'd ducked down behind when he saw one of the men grab the woman from behind and quickly slam her against one of the brick walls and render her unconscious. Oh god dammit... Natsu was going to murder these guys.

But before that could happen he had to find them which meant that the task of protecting Lucy had just fallen to his shoulders. He peeked out over the top of the garbage can and watched as Lucy was bound with her hands behind her back and none too gently picked up off of the ground and tossed over one guy's shoulder.

"Are you guys sure that this is the woman we were sent after?" The guy with Lucy asked.

"Yes. The tracking spell is never wrong besides everyone in five countries knows this woman's face and her former name." Another said.

"So...what exactly is our boss going to do with her?"

"He's going to make sure that she's Rissa Katerina, then he's going to finish what he started almost ninteen years ago- Once he's made sure that this woman is in fact Rissa, one of the legendary mages, resserected from the dead and given new form. He'll then turn her into a dark mage and use her to usher in a new age of death and destruction!"

Leo blinked and sort of cocked his head to the side wondering what these men were talking about yet finding their conversation more and more fascinating by the moment. This was definately not the usual snatch and grab job. And the information that they had just unwittingly given him was...well, disturbing to say the least. But then it was disturbing to think that the person that had woken up from the coma, wasn't Lucy Heartphilia.

All he could think was, Who the fuck was Rissa Katerina? And did Natsu know? And then there was the million dollar question. If that woman isn't Lucy; then where was Natsu's partner?

The three started to move and Leo found himself following, looking for an opening so that he could help the woman, whoever she was, knowing that even if she wasn't Lucy...she wasn't an evil person and he'd be damned before he saw her manipulated into becoming another Jellal.

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Natsu reached the place strongest with Lucy's scent and inhaled deep, detecting the scents of several strangers mixed in with a familiar scent of one of his guildmates, Leo. He cocked his head curious to know what Leo was doing in an alley somewhere but quickly figured that he must have been out for one of his walks and heard Lucy's scream too and had come to investigate.

Natsu touched the side of one of the buildings, detecting Lucy's scent on the stone along with something else. The smallest hint of blood and hair.

His lips curled back from his teeth as smoke wafted out of one of his nostrils as he snarled. Someone had hurt Lucy. Someone had hurt his mate! Someone is going to die for this. His dragon side roared as he started running again, following the trail in the air as his fury built to dangerous levels.

Scales rippled along his arms and legs, his eyes changed from a mere gold to molten amber with slitted pupils as he felt the skin of his back shift until large, leathery scaled wings ripped free from under his skin. Reaching up he jerkily pulled his vest off without faltering in his steps and suddenly took to the air with an animalistic roar.

From the air he was able to spot his mate slung over someone's shoulder, eerily still and felt his rage mount a notch higher before spotting Leo trailing after the ones carrying Lucy away from him, looking for an opening to attack. So Natsu decided to give him the opening he was seeking and do something about the men in the hooded cloaks while he was at it.

He'd kill two and keep the third alive for questioning since he had a sneaky suspicion that they were from the guild that had recently surfaced and started coming after her.

He flew a little ahead of the cloaked men and then folded his wings and let himself free fall through the air, flipping and twisting himself this way and that before landing on the ground with a loud crash.

The men in the scarlet cloaks all stopped in their tracks and gaped at him as he unfolded his wings again and let out another roar, this one followed by his fire. His eyes flickered to Leo who paled and looked a little ill and nodded his head at him to silently tell him that it was okay to attack now. He had his back.

Leo nodded back and charged, tackling one guy from behind while Natsu used one of his wings to fling the first guy away, it was like swatting a fly. His body hit the side of a building and Natsu heard the distinct sickening crack of several bones breaking all at once and then looked at the guy holding him mate and bared his teeth at him. Before he closed the distance between them and slashed the pale and frightened man's face with his claws.

All while grabbing Lucy by the back of her shirt and pulling her away from harm and slipping his arms around her limp body and held her against his chest and quickly ran a clawed hand through hair, checking her head for wounds. Finding a knot about the size of an goose egg on the back of her head, under her hair and looked back at the bleeding and blubering man and gave him a feral looking smile.

He eased Lucy down to the ground at his feet, careful of her head wound and stepped over her, and made his way over to the man as he scrambled back away from him and pounced on him and ripped out his throat. He might have taken things a step further and ripped the writhing body open with his claws but he sensed Leo standing behind him and knew that he wouldn't handle seeing such savage ferocity well.

Such a pity too. He would have torn out the dead man's insides and hung bits and pieces around Lucy's home to warn people off.

"Jesus Natsu-" Leo said in a horrified tone as he looked down at the corpse Natsu was crouched over then looked at the younger man-er dragon-er person standing next to him. "I've never seen you kill anyone before."

"So?" Natsu growled before stating in a dark tone, "He pissed me off." Leo put a hand over his mouth and looked a little green for a moment before shaking off whatever he was feeling for the moment and asked.

"What do you want to do with that one over there?" He pointed towards the cloaked figure bound on the ground several feet from Lucy. Natsu glanced at the man and growled low in his throat. He'd love nothing more than to rip the bastard limb from limb but for the moment he needed information. So the guy could live.

For now.

"We'll take him to the guild for questioning. I want to know who these assholes are and why they want Lucy." Leo was quiet for a moment, silently debating with himself on mentioning what he'd overheard earlier then sighed and said.

"I think I know why. But we'll need that guy to fill in the blanks because what I heard them talking about didn't make much sense."