Lucy

Six months ago

I felt like I was floating. It was like I was suspended in the air with nothing holding me, but yet I stayed there. I could feel people all around me, whispering to me and trying to get me to land but my body refused to. I couldn't. I couldn't feel anything solid around me, even though I could see hands grasping me and trying to pull me back. I think the reason I didn't land was because I didn't want to. I knew that the moment I did I would be back to reality and facing the truth of what happened. My heart couldn't take it, and the rest of my body knew that. So there I was, floating through the air while my friends tried everything they could to save me.

Somehow, I felt my body lower. I glanced down and saw an arm held across my stomach and I knew it was him. He was pulling me back. I fought him, tried to push his arm off of me, but it was like an iron bar that was welded to my body. From somewhere I could head him, his voice clear but still far away. "Don't do this" I heard him say. There was a tremor in there, threatening to come out but he was fighting it. "I can't do this without you." He lost the fight, I could hear the sorrow and grief there. It tore at me, made me feel like my entire being was being pulled apart. It was then I surrendered to him.

I drew in a deep, shuddering breath and felt the hot tears falling down my face when my mind cleared up. I was in a bed in the guild infirmary, he was lying beside me with his arms drawn around me and holding me as tightly as he could with his face buried in my neck. I could hear the quiet sobs that escaped his throat and his body shook, making mine vibrate. I reached a hand up and grasped his arm under my chin. He tensed but otherwise didn't move. A moment of quiet passed and then I turned to face him and we both cried out our broken hearts. She was gone, our little Nashi was gone.

Present

I ran to the front of the house and threw the door open so hard it hit the side of the house with a thud and caused the window to crack. I ran off the porch and stood in the middle of the front yard and spun around, searching for whoever left that card. I couldn't see anything.

On my fourth spin, I was caught by Natsu. He held my shoulders and stared intently into my eyes. "I need you to calm down." He told me, his voice careful.

I wanted to slap him, but I took a deep breath instead and attempted to steady myself. When I saw Happy come out of the house with the note held in her paw I felt myself stagger again. I stomped over and snatched the note from the cat's paw and read it again, and again, and again. I knew that it could mean anything, that it didn't mean whoever sent it was talking about my baby, but for some reason that was where my mind took it. I could feel Natsu behind me, ready to reach out again, but I whirled around and began to scream to the forest around us. "WHERE ARE YOU!" I shouted, my anger taking control of me. "WHERE IS MY BABY?" my voice cracked and I felt the first tear leak from my eye. Natsu tried to grab me again but I shoved him off. "GIVE ME MY BABY BACK!" He caught me then, his arms locking around me. I struggled against him but he wasn't relenting. I just screamed my words out into the air. "I WANT MY BABY BACK! GIVE HER BACK! YOU BASTARD! GIVE HER BACK TO ME!"

I ended up kneeling on the ground with Natsu at my back, his arms still around me and my face down. I couldn't stop the sounds from leaving my throat, and even though I couldn't hear anything from him, I knew he was just as upset as I was. He channeled it differently though. His entire body vibrated with rage.

When I calmed down, he refused to let go of me, and I didn't want him to. We just sat there and let our emotions take over us for a while until Happy walked up to us. He was quiet but there was something in that silence that made Natsu turn to him. "What is it?" his voice was raw like he was the one screaming and not me.

He opened his mouth but nothing came out, so he closed it and swallowed, then opened it again. "I think we should go to the guild." He told us.

Natsu narrowed his eyes but then shook his head. "Why bother. That card was probably just some sick joke from someone that hates me."

"I don't think it is." The cat said. He held the card out to Natsu so that the five offending words was facing him. "Look at the words."

Natsu did, and then he shook his head again. "What am I supposed to be looking at?"

"It says 'they'." Happy said, waving the card at Natsu. "The person who wrote this said 'they' not her or even her name."

When the words hit me, I sat up and let the cat have the full weight of my gaze. "What are you trying to say?"

"I think we should go to the guild."

I sighed when he didn't elaborate any further. But Natsu and I both realized a long time ago that sometimes it was best to just humor the cat.

Makarov

Chaos. Insanity. Pure, utter madness. There was no other way to describe the things that were happening to this guild lately. When Levy ran in with the envelope in her hands and demanded to know what the hell was going on, I had no idea that the day would become this. First Levy, then Gray, Erza, Mira, Evergreen, and finally Lucy. Their husbands where with them, of course, but it was the mothers that demanded answers. Although I couldn't call Gray a mother, but Juvia was, well, she wasn't well.

Right now, everyone was arguing about the damn cards. Who sent them? Did this person have the kids? Or did they just know where they were? Why did he send them? What was going on? The questions were never-ending, but they never had been since the first child had been taken. I felt my chest give a small twinge at the memory. Of course it would do that, the first child taken was my great-grandson.

I sighed and tilted the cup back to drain it. When I set the cup down, I saw Lucy sitting alone at the end of the bar. Natsu was with the others trying to get any information out of the cards but Lucy was just sitting there. She had her hands in her lap and was staring at the bar top without really seeing it. I decided to make my way to her and sat down with my legs dangling over the edge of the bar and placed a hand on her shoulder.

She looked up at me and her eyes made my heart break. She closed them and then looked back down at the bar. "It feels like I'm losing her all over again." She was quiet, and I understood that she didn't want her husband to hear her. I was going to reply but then the guild hall doors flew in and a soaking wet Juvia was standing there.

Everyone went silent as we stared at her. It was strange to see her there, after all for the last nine months she hadn't said a word or even left the house she shared with Gray. But there she was, drenched from head to toe and a look of fury painted all over her face.

Gray eased his way over to her, a hand held out to her. "Juvia?" he asked. "What are you doing?" he reached her finally and touched her face with the outstretched hand. With the other one he leaned down and took her hand and held it to his chest.

"I heard you." She growled at him.

"What are you talking about?" He let his hand at her face fall and grasped her other hand. He brought that to his chest as well. He stared at her, confused.

"I heard you tell me." Her words were strained and clipped. It almost seemed like someone else was making her talk. "You said, you said." She yanked her hands back from him and then stumbled. "WHERE ARE THEY?" she screamed at him. A look of comprehension crossed his face then, and he lowered his hands to his sides.

"I don't know where they are. But all of us received a card that said someone knows where they are. I told you that, before I told you I was coming to the guild to see if anyone else got something like it as well."

With a wail, Juvia fell to the floor. Her entire body just crumpled and she ended up in a ball. Gray dropped to his knees to gathered her up in his arms and held her close to him. "This doesn't make any sense, gramps." He turned red eyes back to me. "Why now? And like this? Cards that just show up out of thin air?"

I wanted to give him an answer, but I didn't have one to give. I just looked back at him, and stayed silent. That is, until a crash turned every head in the room to the bar.

Lucy was on the floor, her hands up like she had been reaching out for something but were now frozen. Natsu rushed over to her and held her head between his hands. He said her name over and over again but she didn't even look at him. I could see her mouth moving, but the words were lost under Natsu's frantic voice. Finally he stopped talking and then he froze as well. "What are you saying?"

She lifted her face to him with an expression that was foreign. "I thought I was dreaming." She said.

"Dreaming about what?"

"That night, I was so tired and she wouldn't go to sleep. So I pulled out my diary to ready to her. I thought I fell asleep for a moment because when I opened my eyes she was gone. But I didn't. I remember it now, I blinked." She turned that look to me then. "I was holding her in my arms and I blinked and then she was gone."

Gray stood up with a limp Juvia in his arms. "You mean like a teleporting?" he asked.

"That would make sense." Laxus spoke up. He had been at the other end of the bar with Mira, trying to not get too worked up. "None of us could find any trail of the kids. If they were teleported out it would explain why that was."

Natsu let go of Lucy and stood up as well. "I could never find a scent of any of them outside of the homes." He turned to me, his eyes stabbing into mine like daggers. "If someone took all of them that way, they could be anywhere in the world."

I returned his look with one just as fierce and then stood up on the bar. "Laxus!" I called out, then jumped down. "Come with me."

"Where are we going?" he asked, following behind me.

"To my office. We are going to contact the magic council. We have something worth following now."

Finally, FINALLY we had a lead that meant something. It wasn't much, but it was something. If I could let the council know about this power, they might be able to track it, or at least try to track powers that were similar. I didn't even know if they could do that, but I still had to tell them. It was a lead, and it HAD to be followed.

Nashi

I was alone again. It was a common thing for me lately. I didn't mind it to be honest, it was a hell of a lot better than when they came for me. I always knew when they were coming. I could hear their footsteps outside my cell and my heart would race just from that sound. For now, though, I just enjoyed the quiet.

My back was up against the corner of my windowless cell and I had my legs stretched out in front of me. My head was back, resting in the crease where the two walls met and my eyes were closed as I imagined being somewhere I was free. I always did that, when I was alone like this. I helped to pass the time and to also not let myself be driven insane. This time, I was back where I was supposed to me. I was with my parents and we were swimming in a pond. I had never been in a body of water bigger than a small box that was my bathtub, but in my fantasies I loved the water. We swam and played, and I laughed like I never had before. When I looked back at my parents their faces were nothing but a blur, I didn't know what they looked like, so how could I put a face to them?

There was a scrape. And then there was a bang. I opened my eyes to the darkness of my home and pulled my knees up when I heard the dreaded sounds. They were coming for me.

When the door opened I shielded my eyes from the intense light and then felt hands roughly grab my ankles and then drag me out. I started screaming, but it never did any good. I reached out with both hands to grab anything and everything I passed, trying to hold on and not let them take me there. But anything I was able to hold onto was kicked out of my hands. My nails dug into the earthen floor making tracks behind me, and I screamed until my throat bled as the forced me back into the arena.

I could feel my body jerking and writhing on my bed, but it wasn't until I heard someone shouting my name that I finally woke up. I lay there, panting and dripping sweat while the memory faded from me. It had been weeks since I had a nightmare like that.

I shifted my eyes to the window above me and stared at the moon that was partially hidden behind the trees. The little bit of light it let into the room was just enough to let me know that the window was there, but not so much so that it was too bright. It was just enough for me. I didn't like bright lights.

I touch on my arm brought my attention to my roommate that had woken me up. Lila was kneeling by the side of my bed, her hair standing up in places from her sleeping but her eyes were wide open and alert.

"I'm sorry." I told her. I sat up and ran my hands over my face and took a few deep breaths. The side of the bed dipped down letting me know that she sat down next to me.

"You have nothing to be sorry about. You remember my nightmares right?" I could tell she was trying to comfort me, but her small shudder let me know that maybe her nightmares weren't done either.

"I know, I just thought that they were gone. I hadn't had one in weeks." I threw my soaked blanket off of me and got up. My dresser was across the room, but the room itself was small enough that two steps brought me to it. I pulled open the top drawer and retrieved a new set of clothing and started to change.

"You know that's not how it works. Pops told us that it could take years for us all to get better." Her voice was so small that I barely heard her. But she was right. Pops told us when he first brought us all together that the pain we went through could take years for us to get past. I hated that it could take that long.

"I know that too." With dry clothes on, I tossed my old ones into the hamper by the door and then stood next to my bed. The sheets were soaked also. And I didn't have any clean one yet, they were all in the laundry room because SOMEONE didn't do their job yesterday. I sighed and then sat on the floor.

Lila chuckled then stood and took a handful of my shirt, forcing me to stand. She walked me over to her bed and climbed in, moving herself so she was on the far side against the wall facing me. I gave her a small smile and then climbed in after her.

For a while we just lay there, looking at each other. Lila's eyes started to drift closed but she kept forcing them back open. After a while, a question popped into my head. "Do you ever think about them?"

"About who?" she asked, he eyes were closed now and her voice was soft and drowsy but she was still awake.

"Our parents. Do you ever wonder if they still want us?"

"All the time. Gunner thinks I'm a moron for that, but I can't help it." She forced her eyes open to look at me again. "I know they want us."

"How?"

"I just do. I know that my mother and father are back in our world still trying to get us home. And I also know they we will find them one day."

"How can you be so sure? I mean, pops has been trying for years to get us back to them and he's failed every time."

"I read the stories, Nashi, I know that they will stop at nothing to get us back because that is who they are." She reached out and grabbed my hand, giving it a good squeeze. "Trust in them, and trust in us. We WILL see them again."

She gave me another smile then closed her eyes again. Before I could get her to say anything else she was fast asleep. I closed my eyes as well, but the thoughts kept creeping in. I imagined meeting them for the first time, only instead of being greeted with cheers and happy tears I was greeted with disgust and anger. I covered my head with the blanket and cried myself to sleep, again.