Anger.

Rage.

Pain.

So much pain.

Make it stop!

Make it go away!

Where was everyone? Why couldn't anyone make it stop? Why did he suddenly feel so alone? Why was it so dark? He wanted light!

He couldn't see. He couldn't hear anything, either. All he could do there was feel – but he didn't want to feel!

He knew pain – he had lost and been hurt before, but never to that extent. He still couldn't believe that he lost… right in front of his eyes…

No! You don't know for sure that it happened!

They had just found each other again, too! They barely had the time to talk, to catch up. No, they had absolutely no time to talk and catch up. His own impulsiveness and the troubles that seemed to follow him – or maybe follow them? - got in the way and took away any free, light moments.

This was hell! He did not want to keep going through such depressing thoughts. He hurt again – now it felt worse. Why did it feel worse? It should at least feel better with time. Pain fades eventually, he learned. It always faded.

It didn't feel like it would fade this time, though.

He heard voices: women. Three women were talking, but it was too dark for him to see. He also realized, upon trying to move, that he could not: he was trapped inside a cage, like an animal – he felt like one, too. He couldn't use his skills, and even his physical strength seemed to dim inside that cage. Weird. It wasn't made of anything that should be able to suppress him.

The voices got gradually louder. Now a man had joined the group. No, not one man, two. As they approached, the cage seemed to disappear and he could move freely again – was the cage ever even there? Maybe it was his imagination: he certainly felt caged, even if there were no concrete bars around him.

How else would he explain that pain that wouldn't end? If he were truly free, he would be able to flee from it, would he not? Instead he was stuck with the pain, wherever he went, the pain went along. Or maybe he just never truly went anywhere: the pain kept him still, under the eternal illusion that he was free.

The cage was back. The voices grew louder. He banged on the bars, ignoring the sharp pain that shot through his fists – that kind of pain he didn't mind. He actually welcomed it: it distracted him from the worse pain, the one he couldn't shake.

The voices were merely a dozen feet away now. He banged on the bars again, and a man yelled. No, not a man, he yelled. He had been yelling all that time. The voices weren't there to keep him company: they were there to check on him, to make sure he wasn't dying. Apparently, he was needed alive.

Of course they need me alive. They can't afford to kill one more person the way they killed the first.

He tried shutting his own mind up.

The voices started to fade. He banged on the bars again. Sweat dripped from his face and neck and he dried his forehead quickly. He had to get out of there. If he couldn't go back and change the past, he sure as hell could make sure those bastards never had a future.

Cold, crude, angry feelings took over him. He had never felt less human, more like a monster. He had lost, yes, but what could he do about it? Nothing. He could do nothing about the loss. But he could do something about the guilty. He could hunt.

He could beat them up into a pulp, make them suffer, make them…

He could avenge her.

Adjusting his scarf, he banged on the bars one last time before stepping back and…

"LUCY!"

A loud crack echoed. A mess of blonde hair, little clothing and blankets rose from the ground, and just as a thin, swirly eyebrows man reached the noisy area, she adjusted herself more properly – causing him to start doing pirouettes.

Lucy adjusted her hair and skirt and dropped the blanket back on the bed they had assigned for her. She shivered, her last dream still playing vividly in her mind. It was too vivid. She had never experienced something like that, and wished she had someone to talk about it. She couldn't summon her spirits at will – she needed to save her energy. Apparently that world made her use a lot more magical energy on simpler things.

"Lucy!" Happy called again, landing next to her, "are you okay?"

She nodded, forcing a smile.

"It was just a nightmare, Happy. Don't worry about it..."

"Goddess Lucy!" A singing weird voice made Lucy look behind her just in time to see Sanji arriving with a plate of food. Bepo and another pirate from Law's crew followed close behind, both complaining and yelling about something.

Lucy rubbed her tempers: her head hurt. However, as soon as the smell of the food Sanji carried reached her, she felt extremely hungry, and looked amazed at the plate. Whatever it was, it looked absolutely delicious.

"YOU CAN'T GO COOKING STUFF IN OUR SHIP!"

"I want food too!"

So that was what Bepo and his colleague were shouting at Sanji, who seemed deaf and unaware of their presence there. The blonde's eyes locked on Lucy, awaiting for her to move and pick the plate of food.

She did so, and sat down by a small table to eat. As she took the first bite, her mouth filled with water and she felt a weird, but cozy, feeling spread over her. That was probably the best thing she had ever eaten! Quietly, and suddenly starving, she eat the whole thing, only stopping once the plate was empty and the two pirates were gone, leaving her alone with Happy and Sanji.

"This was delicious, Sanji-san," she spoke, finally, and literally saw his eyes turn into weird hearts. She moved away from him, finding his expression way too creepy, and turned to look at Happy, who seemed to be enjoying that entire scene.

"What was your nightmare about, Lucy?" Happy asked curiously, ignoring Sanji, who suddenly broke into making love declarations and wedding proposals. He stopped, however, to hear what she had to say – she wished he didn't, it made it a lot harder.

Taking a deep breath, she told them all about her nightmare. She began by describing what she could of the place – dark, scary, quiet – and followed with what it felt like being there. She stopped then, puzzled: in her dream, she had never actually been in the place, she was a bystander watching someone else there… Someone she knew…

The image seemed to slip from her grasp the more she tried to grab for it. She realize the memory of the dream was fading, and tried to hurry and tell them everything she could remember. How lonely she felt, the despair, the sadness, the rage, the guilt… she remembered feeling so much guilt she felt like she could drown in it.

Yet… was it her that felt all of those stuff? No, those were someone else's feelings – the person locked in the cage.

Who was locked in that cage?

"This is just a bad nightmare, though, right?" Happy tried to reassure her, seeing how shaken she was.

She shook her head negatively.

"I don't know why, but I feel like it's more than just a nightmare…"

"I will kick whoever tries to hurt you before they can even lay eyes on you, Goddess Lucy!" Sanji promised in his usual drooling voice. Lucy nodded, forcing a smile…

"He actually sounded like Natsu now," Happy commented, thoughtful, "except for the Goddess..."

"Natsu!" Lucy shouted, covering her mouth with her hands and widening her eyes, suddenly struck by horror. "Happy! That's it! On the cage… No, it can't be… How..."

Happy and Sanji looked lost at her words. She grabbed a silver key.

"Open, Gate of the Southern Cross Key, Crux!"

Happy received the old cross man with curiosity and worry: Lucy went very weird at the mention of Natsu's name, and the exceed didn't like that. The blonde, however, didn't even glance at her blue companion – nor did she pay attention to Sanji's shocked expression at the appearance of a floating sleeping cross. She focused on her spirit, and asked it whether or not what she saw in her dream could be true, and whether the spirit could tell her anything about Natsu's location.

The answer to the second question was negative – he couldn't find the dragon slayer. However, he went into his searching trance mode for the first one, and, after a few minutes, returned from it with bad news:

"Your specific dream was no dream, Lucy-san," he spoke, "it was the present."

"The present? As in, what I saw is currently happening?"

"Yes."

"B-But… Where? Where is… Where is that place?"

"That, I do not know, and something is blocking me from finding out. Us, spirits, have little liberty in this world, Lucy-san, and going too far might be dangerous."

"Why can I see it though? Charle's the psychic, I'm not," she protested weakly, still hoping beyond hope that the spirit was wrong. But deep down she knew it was foolish: Crux had never been wrong before.

"Because, like one of your friends, your magic is connected to another world, and it attracts messengers in this world. You are susceptible to receiving messages that not necessarily are for you."

"My dream was a message?"

She wanted to ask Crux what he meant by 'like one of your friends', but her time with the spirit was up and she had to – reluctantly – close its gate. No matter how much she needed answers, she could never break a contract with a spirit over them: she respected and loved her spirits way too much.

"Lucy, what is going on? What did you see? Where is Natsu?" Happy asked, sounding scared.

Lucy hugged Happy.

"I'm sorry, Happy… In the dream, the person in the cage… the one feeling all those emotions I told you, it wasn't m-me… It… It w-was Natsu."

She stuttered at the end, too afraid to say those words out loud: it made them more real.

She had been worried about Natsu, Erza and Gray, of course. She always worried, and she knew they'd been in terribly dangerous situations before: that wasn't the part that fazed her. Even in face of danger, Natsu was always… positive. He was a fighter, the kind whose spirit burned just as his fire. However, in her dream, Natsu was… he was hopeless.

The cage and the idea that he had been taken prisoner didn't terrify her: the idea of a hopeless Natsu, however, did. What could they possibly have done to him to crush his spirit like that?

She shivered, barely realizing that one tear had escaped her. Happy was frozen, probably in shock.

Sanji lit up a cigarette, and his next words made Lucy feel a lot friendlier towards the pervert:

"Well, I guess this means we'll go on a rescue mission."

Ten Minutes Later

"HOW DARE YOU REFUSE TO HELP A GODDESS IN DISTRESS?"

They were with Law and Bepo now. After Sanji decided that he would lead them into a rescue party - which sounded fine with Lucy, except for the fact that she knew Sanji had to find his own crew and captain -, they went and informed the submarine's captain about their plan. Well, Sanji did, Lucy only told him everything that happened prior to the 'let's save him' decision. She told him about her nightmares, about how her spirit explained that it was real - and happening at that moment - and even summoned Plue to prove that she wasn't bluffing on the spirit part (she couldn't summon Crux again so soon due to her contract). Now, while Plue and Bepo seemed engaged in a very deep, very serious conversation, the others discussed what to do.

Law - as Lucy expected - wasn't as keen on hurrying to save her friend as the blond was. Again, Law wasn't trying to win her over or anything, so there was that.

In fact, his reaction was to tell them that they would be arriving in Sabaody soon, and there the two could wait for the rest of Luffy's crew. "I am sure Strawhat will jump at the chance to fight and help people," he said.

Which made Lucy feel very friendly towards the Strawhat kid, though she never met him. She knew Wendy decided to help him, knew he was Ace's brother - a guy she met briefly, but for some reason she felt he could be trusted - and knew he believed his brother was dead. She hoped Wendy and Ace could reach him soon.

"It's okay if he doesn't want to help," Lucy spoke up, interfering when it looked like Sanji was about to attack Law, who looked as cool and calm as ever. She wondered if anything could ever unfaze him.

"No it isn't! He invited you along, did he not?"

"Not really," Happy spoke, but his voice wasn't as light or friendly - he, too, was worried about Natsu, "They decided that splitting our group up into two different ships would make it easier to find everyone we need to find, and he agreed to let us come."

"Which we appreciate," Lucy added politely, "We did manage to find Sanji-kun, after all," she added, and Sanji finally calmed down, looking blissfully at her after she said his name, "but we can't ask for help saving someone they don't even know."

"We would do it," Happy protested.

She shrugged.

"We're Fairy Tail. That's how we are, isn't it? Not everyone's the same."

Truthfully, she did feel a tinge of resentment, but in the year the guild was apart, she came to realize that Fairy Tail's tendency to help those in need - even if it wasn't part of a job - was not a normal thing. Not everyone jumped into trouble for the sake of random people: this was something she grew to love even more about her guild during her year alone.

Sanji muttered something and left, probably to avoid conflict - or because he wanted to cook, she wouldn't know.

"You never do things without a reason."

She wasn't asking, but he simply nodded in agreement.

"Yet you said yes to Happy and I, and even to Sanji coming along," she continued. He still didn't speak, "what is your reason?"

He remained quiet.

"I think you want something from us, but it makes no sense since Happy and I aren't even from this world. The only connection you have to us is through Nami-chan, who is in a rival crew to yours according to what I've picked up on, and the reason you went to her in the first place is someone named Shanks, who is also the guy who took Wendy and Ace to the island," she smiled when he finally reacted, "he sounded like a big deal. Is he the one you're looking to reach?"

He still didn't answer.

"We can't help you with that. The only person he knows is Wendy, and as interesting as she may have looked, with her powers and all, he still let her go. So, if that is the reason, I am sorry to disappoint, and we will leave your crew as soon as possible. I will rescue Natsu, with or without help. I'll definitely do it."

She knew, deep down, that going alone was a huge risk, and she wasn't as strong as the rest of Team Natsu, but she also knew that, if roles were reversed, he would have moved heaven and hell to rescue her - even if his chances were low.

She also knew he would succeed, and so would she.

Law tilted his head, watching her. It seemed like he was searching for something, and whatever it was, he apparently found.

"This should be an interesting warm up for the New World," he spoke, after some time in silence, "we have to wait until the Marines ease on the security around the Red Wall, anyway, for now, I am willing to join forces."

The way he spoke made Lucy feel like he would be asking for something in return later on, but she didn't care: until she could get a hold of the other Fairy Tail members, she would take all the help she could get.

Natsu. We're coming.

They sailed for what felt like eternity without reaching any islands. Erza, who at first enjoyed the ocean, the infinity of it, now could not wait to reach land. She had to admire the people in this world: according to Usopp, many of them spent their lifes at sea looking for a piece of something. Oddly, he never answered what exactly that piece was, only that it was unique and it was hidden by the previous king of pirates.

She assumed it would be a very powerful piece.

They ran into some monsters that seemed eager to eat ship inhabitants, but both Erza and Robin dealt with them easily - while Usopp kept yelling threats from a safer zone.

She found she enjoyed Usopp's and Robin's company. Usopp had a talent for telling stories - complete lies, but stories nonetheless - and drawing her attention to them, and usually the stories were interesting enough - she'd dare say some of the adventures he told sounded as interesting as some of her own adventures with Fairy Tail. Robin pitched in here and there to tell her what parts of the adventures actually happened and what had been added by Usopp.

Robin was quieter - she didn't look like someone who could ever get angry. She made Erza think of Mirajane for a moment - although Mira had a goofy side, whereas Robin apparently did not. She loved history, too, which was very helpful when Erza asked them to tell her a little about their world.

Basically that's how their sailing went, until...

"I see a blue fish!" Usopp yelled from his place on top of the mast. He looked at the horizon with his binnoculars.

"Good for you, Usopp-kun," Robin answered distracted, while Erza cooked them something to eat.

"No! A blue fishman," Usopp corrected himself, and Robin immediately stood up and looked at the direction Usopp was pointing. Erza, noticing the change in the woman's posture, followed, and a ship slowly began to approach them.

Usopp got his kabuto and aimed, but Robin told him to hold.

"That's not just any fishman," Robin spoke, and Erza realized she had crossed her arms - the way she did when she used her powers. The redhead guessed eyes had grown somewhere that allowed the pirate woman to see closely, "that's Jinbe, former shichibukai!"

"Jinbe?!" Usopp got down from the mast to join them, "so does that mean he'll attack us? Robin! We can't go up against a shichibukai on our own!"

Just as he said that, Robin steered the ship towards the other one. Erza didn't question her, just prepared to fight if needed. She kept reminding herself that most people on that planet seemed to have water as a weakness.

Indeed, once they got so close the ships could crash, she saw what Usopp meant by blue fishman. The man - for it was a man - looked like a blue fish, and not the harmless kind. He had a few crew members working the sails, but Jinbe himself stood staring at the group, his eyes lingering longer on Robin.

"Strawhat crew, aren't you?" He asked, looking at Robin again.

"I supposed you've seen the Wanted posters," she spoke and he nodded, "we are not looking for trouble."

"With that captain of yours? Hard to believe that," he answered back and Robin and Usopp reacted surprise: though she didn't get as loud as he did. Jinbe raised one hand when Usopp began shouting stuff. "I assume you have heard from your captain?"

"Luffy's alright then?" Usopp asked, suddenly forgetting he was angry.

Jinbe frowned.

"So you did not hear. Luffy broke into the marine base and sent a signal to his crew - or at least that's what Raileigh informs me. He is asking you to meet after two years..."

"What? No!" Usopp snapped, "I mean... we could use the training and I get why he wants some time alone, but... we..."

"Is he safe?" Robin inquired, crossing her arms and relaxing slightly at Jinbe's confirmation. "We will agree to it, then," she smiled, but it didn't reach her eyes, "we should set course for a specific island and each go our separate ways to train, Usopp. After we help Erza, that is..."

"I will be fine," Erza assured them, "as long as we reach an island."

"You're not too far from Water 7. About a day away, in fact," Jinbe informed them, and then spoke something to one of his crew members, who ran belowdeck and returned with an eternal logpose - now Erza knew what it looked like. "You can get enough logposes there for all of you, and it won't be as swarmed with Marines as Sabaody."

"Why are you helping us?" Erza asked, suspicious.

"Luffy-kun released me from Impel Down, and Ace was a great guy," Jinbe answered without faltering, "farewell, strawhats."

With that, they sailed away, leaving a very puzzled group behind. Usopp quickly took the Eternal Pose and adjusted their course to follow its directions. Hopefully they could reach Water 7 before nightfall.

A/N: No real Author's note this time cause I'm in a crazy schedule. Thank you for reading this far, and I hope you continue around :D I really appreciate all the comments and helpful suggestions!