Lucy woke up from the shouting and crashes outside the peaceful tent only to add to the noise. She screamed at Gray and desperately tried to pull away from the dark haired man, but only managed to tangle herself in the sleeping bag. "Lucy calm down, it's just me." Gray said reaching for her hoping to calm her. Lucy screamed flinching away from his cold touch, "NO! DON'T TOUCH ME!" She screamed still trying to pull away from him. "GAJEEL!" Tears began to fill her eyes. The iron mage entered the tent and slowly moved to Lucy. He looked over to Gray, red eyes meeting black. Loki pushed his way through the flaps and took one look at Gray before ordering him out.
Without protest Gray left the tent taking one look back at the shivering Lucy and wide eyed happy at her feet. Her reached for the cat but was stopped by Loki "He can stay. She won't feel threatened by Happy." Loki said without turning to face Gray and he retracted his hand and silently left. Gajeel knelt beside the shaking Celestial mage and slowly placed a hand on her shoulder. "Lucy-", he started only to be interrupted by her. "YOU PROMISED TO TAKE ME HOME!" She screamed still trying to wrestle free from the sleeping bag.
Loki stood out of the way, waiting for Gajeel to calm her down before he dared to make himself known, in this state she might not realise it's him and scream like she had with Gray. Happy had moved next to him sharing the same thoughts as Loki. "YOU LEFT ME! YOU PROMISED YOU'D STAY!" Lucy continued to scream and thrash in the sleeping bag. "Lucy stop you'll hurt yourself." Gajeel calmly said, gently pinning her flat to the ground. "What do you care? You left me." Lucy said, voice so full of hate and spite that Happy began to cry, this wasn't the Lucy he was used to. He'd never heard her speak like that to anyone.
Slowly Gajeel untangled her legs and arms, careful with her broken limbs. Lucy winced slightly and suppressed a pain filled moan. "I'm sorry Lucy; I thought you'd be alright with everyone here." He said laying her moving her gingerly in hopes she'd feel more comfort. Finally Lucy looked up at the two in the corner and a flash of recognition flared in her eyes. "Loki?" She asked shyly, eye pleading him to answer yes. "I'm here Lucy, I'm not going anywhere." Slowly Loki moved to her side. He placed his hand on hers, feeling the coolness of her bare flesh. Lucy cringed but didn't pull away from the spirit, "You promise?" Lucy asked her dull eyes searching his.
"I promise." He said; thumb rubbing soothing circles on the back of her hand. "I and everyone else in the spirit world are here for you Lulu." She pulled back at the nickname violently removing her hand from his, having to bite back a scream of pain. "Don't call me that!" She yelled, once again going into a panic as memories began to resurface. "Never call me that!" Loki stared at his owner wide eyed, guilt washing over him. He didn't mean to call her by the nickname but the once friendly name had slipped out as it usually would around her. Loki cursed himself as Gajeel looked to him as he once more had to restrain Lucy. "He called her that." Was all Loki said before he moved to help Gajeel. Not being able to take it, Happy left the tent hoping Lucy would fall asleep soon so the screaming would stop.
Natsu's insides burnt. He thought the toxic hatred he had for the leader of the Umbraphiles, the one who hurt Lucy, was the most he'd ever hate anyone. But the despise he held for himself right now couldn't even be rivalled by the Umbraphile clan. He felt like the lowest piece of shit possible, he wouldn't even consider himself worthy to be scrapped of the bottom of Gray's shoe. When Lucy had continued to scream after Loki had entered the tent, Natsu could only cover his ears and sob. It was killing him that he wasn't by her side and this was the best he could do to stop from running to her. After all Loki was right, Natsu didn't deserve to be by Lucy at this time. Not when he had failed her in such a traitorous way.
Long after the screaming had stopped and Natsu could no longer smell the salt from her tears Natsu's hands continued to shield his ears. He didn't deserve to hear how she was doing from Gajeel or how her soft breathing made it seem as if everything was as it was before Edolas, with Lucy sleeping peaceful and safe in her bed with him at her side, stroking her hair off of her face. He'd never do that again. He has no right to touch her anymore. He doesn't deserve to love her anymore. More tears fell from Natsu's eyes at the thought of never talking to or touching her again. Just a few months nearly killed him, how would he survive his entire life?
He felt a soft paw on his calf; reluctantly he looked down to see Happy's wide eyes brimmed with tears. "Natsu?" Happy said as he crawled into Natsu's lap and wrapped his arms around his torso. Unwillingly Natsu removed his hands from his ears and hugged his adoptive son closer to him. Happy sobbed into his stomach and he could feel the warm tears rolling down his abs. "It'll be okay Happy." He said as his own tears continued to fall. Slowly the exceed looked up at the fire mage, "I don't think it will anymore Natsu. She isn't the same. Nothings the same. How could it every go back to normal?" He said burying his face again.
Another round of guilt attacked Natsu at Happy's words. He'd do anything he could to help Lucy. And if that meant staying away from her, he'd surfer in silence and would never approach her again. Natsu and happy sat there the rest of the night as Natsu tried to comfort his son. He had caused Happy this pain; he should be the one to console his him as he felt his world falling apart. It was something to distract him from running into the silent tent and curling up next to Lucy, he'd take Happy's tears if that meant he wouldn't disturb Lucy and she could begin to heal.
"You were pretty harsh on Salamander, don't you think?" Gajeel said to the spirit whose eyes refused to leave Lucy, even after she had fallen into a deep dreamless sleep. "You didn't watch what happened to her. She screamed for him, even after she knew he wasn't coming." Loki said as he brushed the hair back from Lucy's pale face. She moaned in her sleep and tried to pull away from the hand, only to be met with the resistance of the sleeping bag. "Yeah, but it's not like he didn't want to. From what Lisanna told Levy he wanted to but thought Lucy was looking for space." Loki sighed as he pulled his hand away from Lucy's battered and bruised skin. "I know, I was just angry he didn't come, while I couldn't. They block our gates. Everyone's probably waiting for me to get back. I just don't want to leave her yet."
Loki looked at the keys around Lucy's neck. He thought he should probably send Virgo to polish them. Lucy had been too distressed to notice their state before; he'd be surprised if she even noticed the cold metal touching her throat. "I should probably apologise to him, but I just don't feel like it yet. I may regret what I said, but he deserved those punches." Loki whispered. Slowly he moved from Lucy's side and finally looked up at Gajeel, the iron man nearly flinched at the pain, regret and guilt in the man's eyes. "Virgo will be out soon. Just let her do her thing, she'll probably re-wrap Lucy's wounds. Just let her if you can it's her way of coping." Loki said and with one last glance to his beaten master he disappeared back into the spirit world.
Gajeel felt himself dropping off to sleep on during the train ride home. It had been a long night for him. After Loki had gone back, the pink haired maid appeared almost immediately and begged Gajeel to punish her for "princess". He'd nearly given in just to shut her up, but he had a feeling that even in her current state Lucy would skin him alive if he laid a threatening hand on her spirits. After Virgo had polished the stellar keys to perfection she had then proceeded to re-wash and wrap Lucy as Loki said she would, he was a tad annoyed with the Lion, he hadn't been warned him about her bathing Lucy again and he had been forced to leave the tent for the duration of the bathing.
During that time he tried to talk to Natsu who cradled Happy as he cried but was only met with blank stares and deaf ears so instead he comforted Levy. When Virgo had summoned him back into the tent he was beginning to get pissed off. Just because Lucy only knew him and apparently her spirits at the moment, that didn't mean it always had to be him to watch over her. When he said as much to Virgo her gaze darkened and she explained that the reason Lucy probably took the most comfort in him at the moment was because his frame was the furthest away from the silhouette man who had violent tortured and raped her the entire duration of her imprisonment.
That had caused Gajeel to feel guilty. He had never thought that could be a possibility and he was then glad he had been the one to find her for the second time, the first being when he thought that it was him and not Levy. But he was also shocked; he never thought that Lucy's spirits would be the first to admit out loud that Lucy had been… violated. But then he supposed that was probably because they were bitterer about it because they had to watch it without being able to do anything about it.
After Virgo had gone home, Aries had appeared not Loki like he had expected. She had gently moved Lucy and place wool down for her to sleep on which had help Lucy visibly relax further. The whole night had been full of Lucy's spirits coming out to fuss over her sleeping form. Before Scorpio left he even laid out a bowl of water for Aquarius to appear in who had given Lucy's body enough moisture that her chapped lips were once more a light healthy pink. Plue had been the last to show and had curled up next to his owner and refused to move from her side the entire night.
The jangling of Lucy's keys was the only noise that was heard between the group during the entire train and Levy subconsciously gripped them tighter in her small hand. Loki had appeared when they were readying to set off that morning. Cautiously he had removed the polished keys from Lucy's neck and handed them to Levy. He explained to Gajeel that Earthland and The Spirit World were like in different time zones, a day here was only seconds in his world so he had asked the spirit king if he could take Lucy there during their trip home and it would minimize the time she had to feel pain from movement or to wake up and be thrown into another panic from unfamiliarity. He said he would bring her back when they reached the guild.
When the train ride was finally over, everyone tensed more, if that was even possible. They guild may have not noticed Lucy had gone missing or that her disappearance was out of the ordinary, but they most certainly would when Loki re-appeared with a broken and beaten Lucy and no one was looking forward to that. They all hoped Wendy hadn't left on a mission who more than likely she hadn't considering she had begged master to let her tag along with Levy and Gajeel but he had strongly refused. Gajeel had a funny feeling it was because he had suspected where Lucy was and didn't want to expose Wendy to something like that quite yet. Not while she was still so young.
The walk to the guild was the longest any of them have ever endured. Natsu and Happy had completely distanced themselves and Gajeel knew Loki would need to apologize as soon as possible to the fire dragon slayer or he wouldn't go anywhere near Lucy because of guilt. When they finally reached the open doors of the guild Loki appeared next to them with a still sleeping Lucy. The guild fell silent as they walked in and Mirajane began to sob.
The master looked up from his beer mug, eyes falling instantly on the carvings on Lucy's once fine glowing skin. "I thought so." He quietly whispered, proving Gajeel's theory right. He looked over to Jet who stared wide eyed at the group "Jet, run as fast as you can to Porlyusica's, just tells her Umbraphiles. She'll know." Jet shot off as soon as Makarov was done. The old man looked over at the group once more before jumping off the counter, "Bring her up to the infirmary Loki, you can tell me up there."