Chapter 21: Seeing Red

3rd POV

It seemed as if hours had passed, though Lucy wasn't entirely sure of time just felt longer, or if hours had actually passed by. Thankfully her tears had finally died down, drying onto her muddy cheeks. Her sobs also finally ceased, mostly due to the fact that her throat was getting sore, and her body getting exhausted. After a few deep breaths, the blonde rested her head back against the rocky wall, ignoring how pain shot up through her veins as the gash on her head touched the rough interior.

Her body slumped, ultimately tired, and wanting nothing more than to just close her eyes and let the peaceful arms of slumber take her away.

However, her mind was took consumed with fear to allow sleep any sleep, and she forced her eyes to stay open; even if they were only barely open it was better than letting herself become vulnerable around that unknown and dangerous man.

Pressing her head harder into the wall (mentally noting to avoid the gash), the blonde woman stared up at the stoned ceiling.

Calm down, she reminded herself, I need to clear my head and start fresh; I can't just sit here and expect someone to save me, I can't just sit here and wallow in my misery. I'm better than that now. I'm stronger now, braver; I can do this. I can escape from here, get back my keys, and return back to Gajeel… Yes! Lucy pounded her fist into her hand determinedly, her mind erasing the dark thoughts that had consumed her only minutes earlier.

Taking in deep breath, the blonde forced her mind to push back the true fear she felt as she stared ahead with narrowed eyes, lifting her chin as she refused to let her weakness overcome her. In earlier years the blonde celestial mage might've kept crying, and praying to whoever was listening to let her free; she even might've hoped her father would come and save despite everything he had put her through. But as the years passed, as her mind matured, and as she faced the cruel words spoken to her by none other than Fairy Tail, Lucy grew to no longer being the person she had once been.

Like she had mentioned earlier, she was stronger now, better and braver, and she was going to escape even if it was the last thing she did.

"Lucy, honey," The slimy voice from earlier echoed into her cell, causing Lucy's back to stiffen, however she show no fear as the said man stepped into the light, her chocolate colored orbs glaring up at his form.

The brown haired man stared evenly back at her, standing behind the bars of her cell. Catching sight of her glare, he simply sighed, running a hand through his hair. "I don't know why you must be so difficult, but I understand, my love. After everything you've been through it's not hard to see why you are hesitant to open up." He cooed in what he believed to be coaxing voice, though to Lucy, it was anything but that. It caused violent shivers to run up her spine as she continued to throw daggers at him with her eyes; her expression never once faltering.

Letting out yet another sigh, the man unlocked the cell door, and stepped inside of it, locking the door behind him. Instantly, the celestial mage moved to stand up, instinctively trying to feel less small against the man, but her limbs were too tired to comply, and she ended up slumping back against the wall again. Tilting her chin up, she watched calculatingly as the man made his way to her; he then stopped a couple feet away when he caught the sight of her fist clenching.

"C'mon love," he continued, throwing his arms out. "If you would only just ease up, even if it's just a tiny bit, I can take you out of this dreadful cell. You can have your own luxurious room, a big comfortable bed to sleep on. Now that doesn't sound so bad, does it?" He grinned as he slowly prowled his way so that he was directly in front of Lucy, crouching down to look straight into her eyes.

"… Who are you," Lucy nearly growled, ignoring his earlier words. She hid back the dread that ran through her veins as she caught the possessive and obsessed gleam in his blazing golden eyes.

"Me? Hmm…" A mischievous grin then appeared onto his features, and immediately the blondes narrowed her eyes even more, generating a chuckle from the unknown man. "My name is Zayn."

"… What do you want with me, Zayn," She asked evenly, though despite her rising confidence against this mysterious Zayn man, she could help but feel as if acid had been poured onto her tongue once his name slipped through her teeth. A part of her didn't want to give the man satisfaction of her calling him by his name, and would rather continue to know him as "the man."

"Must I repeat myself? I thought I had made myself clear from our visit earlier," he continued in his rather smooth voice, the grin still curling around his lips.

"No, what is it that you want specifically. Earlier you just said you wanted me, but you didn't say why," Lucy continued bravely, refusing to cower under the brunette's intense gaze.

"Ah yes, I guess you're right, I wasn't being very specific was I darling? Though I believe that is a subject for another time. For you see, I've just got you, and I don't want to scare you away, my love." Zayn then reached forward and gripped her chin in a tight, but not a bruising grip, while the celestial mage stared up defiantly, twisting her chin out of his hold.

In response, the brown haired man frowned softly, disappointed shining in his eyes. "… Oh well, though you will come around eventually. I shall see you soon my dear Lucy." And with that he was exiting her cell, locking it behind himself and disappearing into the shadows.

After a few moments, and the sounds of footsteps seemed to disappear, was only then that Lucy relaxed against the wall again. Though this time, it was because she wasn't going to burst out crying again, nor was it because she felt too tired to move.

No, it was because she getting herself comfortable while she formed a plan of sorts inside her head, knowing that she would do anything to get her keys back, and to go back to Gajeel and Lily.

3rd POV, Meanwhile

With a heart filled with rage and desire, the first place the iron dragon headed towards was none other than the guild that had broken Lucy's heart; Fairy Tail. Gajeel seemed dead set on thinking that it had been them who had kidnapped the blonde, who had taken her away from him, however, his brown haired exceed thought otherwise.

Though Pantherlily knew that Gajeel tended to not think straight when ones he cared about were in danger (for he didn't have many that he was very close to), the exceed decided it was best to keep out of the pierced man's way, allowing him to storm over to the guild with ruby colored orbs blazing with fury. And even while Lily was quite aware of the treatment given to Lucy, he knew that in this scenario they had nothing to do with the celestial mage's abduction. They had wanted her out, gone, away; so it didn't make sense for them to steal her right back.

However, Lily decided to hold his tongue instead of telling his thoughts to Gajeel. He had just gotten the man to calm down just enough to stop punching everything he could get his hands on, and he knew that if he said anything it might cause Gajeel to go back into a rampage.

Sighing wearily, he watched as they finally made it to doors of the guild, and with a booming thud, the black haired man kicked the door open with a powerful, not minding the fact that he had broken the door off from the hinges. And the second everyone saw who it was, the guild became silent, remembering earlier when Gajeel had gone off when Team Natsu had kicked Lucy out. It was obvious from his harsh treatment towards Levy, the one person everyone thought had been the closest to Gajeel, that he was overprotective of the blonde; so instead of doing anything they all kept their distance and went back to minding their own business. It was better to not poke an agitated bear as some say.

The only person who wasn't at all affected by the murderous aura that emitted from Gajeel was Mira, who instead looked concerned when she didn't catch sight of a familiar blonde. Opening her mouth to ask him where Lucy was, Gajeel quickly interrupted, his jaw clenched as the words slipped from his mouth like acid. "Where is she?!" he growled, his eyes narrowing onto the white haired barmaid.

"Gajeel," Mira stated softly, furrowing her delicate eyebrows as the concern she felt increased. "Who are you talking about?"

"WHERE THE FUCK IS LUCY?!" He then roared, causing the majority of the guild to cover their ears in agony. He slammed his fist against the counter of the bar, ignoring the paw that had been placed on his shoulder, and the worried look he was receiving from his exceed.

Now having the full attention of the guild, his anger filled eyes danced around the guild, right before they finally stopped onto none other than Team Natsu, and Levy's team Shadow Gear that sat right next to them. Without a second thought he stormed over to where they were sitting, and grabbed Natsu by the front of the vest, ignoring the insults and the annoyed calls of protest he received in return.

Bringing Natsu's face closer, he sneered into the fire dragon slayers face, his fist tightening around the front of Natsu's vest.

"Where. The. Fuck. Is. My. Bunny."

To be continued…

A/N: I know, I know, I said it would be up in a couple of hours, but I'm so terribly sorry. I did work on it for a couple more hours, perfecting it, and then when I tried uploading it into Doc Manager, it kept saying I couldn't for some reason. Then I waited a day and tried to turn on my computer and it crashes. I didn't get it fixed until right now thanks to the Goddess of Technology, or in other words, my momma. Also I'm going to be going over all my earlier chapters and just fixing any errors that I might've missed. I reread my first chapter and found a lot of them so yeah they'll just be small things really, but will clean up the story nicely.

To SuperPsycoNutcase: Yeah sorry it took some time to upload this, but hopefully you'll like this chapter!:3

To Katelyn: Ah thank you, I do ignore Doom Marine's reviews, and sometimes delete them but thank you. Yeah and I agree about the whole GaLu, there are those stories out there, but they're harder to find since everyone likes GaLe and NaLu. I'm not a big fan of NaLu either; it's just kind of hard for me to see them together is all. And well, Lucy's keys… you'll find out soon but they aren't with her:3

To Ashatan87: Yeah I feel like Bunnygirl is more intimate than Bunny as well (Bunny is more like the nickname of a nickname lol), but I feel it's even more intimate when he actually calls her Lucy, which is why I make sure he says it rarely, being Gajeel and all. And about him finding out that she's his mate, that will happen more later on, right now he's too focused on finding her.

To chabeebear99: Thank you so much, please enjoy this chapter and overprotective Gajeel!

To mikansakuraangel: Sorry, please enjoy this chappie!

To muntolove: I hope you enjoy this chapter and thank you for reading.

To Watergoddess10: Thank you very much, I always get really worried if he's OOC or not; nothing it more aggravating than when a character is not in character. I just wanted to give you guys the actual Gajeel.