He was lost, he was defenseless, he was hungry and above all, he was scared out of his mind.

He could feel the darkness of the forest closing in on him, the various noises of the animals that could possibly kill and devour him and the cold air of the rapidly approaching night attempted to swallow him whole, body and soul, as he moved deeper and deeper into a dangerous world he knew nothing about. But that didn't stop him from running.

Once he escaped outside, Natsu was able to get a clear look at his prison and was immediately reminded of a horror-comedy movie he once saw with Erza, Jellal, Lucy, Loke and Gray on a dare.

Apparently, he was held inside of a medium-sized two-story cabin that had only its top floor seen above the ground level. The cabin looked as though no one had lived or taken proper care of it in years, which was oddly funny after getting brief look of the inside and its well beyond taken care of state when he escaped, the wood was beyond faded and ivy grew unchecked all over its face. Natsu didn't linger long as he had decided to follow a dirt path that lied not far from the front porch that he had to assume it had to be the only way for anyone to get in or out of the dense wooded area as evident by the tire treads and he actually could see why. The road was covered in various plant life ranging from shrubbery, low hanging trees to dangling ivy vines, which would help keep the cabin well hidden from the outside world, if the woods likely life consuming darkness didn't already, as a security measure.

So in short, it was his best bet.

He ran for gods know how long, gaining various cuts and bruises all over his already beaten body, here, there, everywhere and all about and it seemed that the nature of the woods was working against him rather then work with him with night falling and fast already making the already hard to see trail more darker, making it quite difficult to navigate. The earth seemed to move in every which way that made it impossible to tell what was safe and what was dangerous or if it was dead or if it was alive. Thankfully, at some point, Natsu felt he was far enough away, safe and began to slow down to something a kin to a trot and a limp as he slowly but carefully maneuvered over the rough and dark forest terrain. He shivered as the cold nipped at his exposed skin and he crossed his arms, hoping to keep his warmth before his head shot up and he quickly looked over his shoulder, eyes wide at the sound of a bunch of twigs and leaves crunching followed by a low growl.

"Just my imagination," He whispered, his breath coming out as a puff in the fridget air. The temperature was dropping low and fast and wearing this skimpy outfit didn't help him any. "That's it. That has to be it! My imagination. There's no way- NO WAY he could've-"

SNAP

He gasped and jumped, turning around and found himself face to face with a pack of large snarling beasts. They're were too large and massive be wolves, yet to small and canine in feature to be a grizzly bears. He gulped as he took several feet back slowly and carefully so as to not have them rush him as there had to be at least a half a dozen of them. All of them, snarling and foaming at the mouth as they began to close in on him.

Natsu could feel his heart accelerate, throat go dry and his blood turn to ice in his very veins as cold sweat began to cover his entire body and as a result, took another step back, trembling while trying to remember what it was he was dealing with. The lead beast, the largest out of the group, growled at him for his action, snapping its jaws as it took another step forward followed by the many others behind it, forcing Natsu to freeze once more, eyes wide. The lead beast then made a sudden running dash at the frightened pinkette causing Natsu's fear to take control and allowing him to, surprisingly, move.

He cried.

He fled deeper into the forest, jumping over fallen trees and staggering to keep his balance as he maneuvered around barely seen obstacles. He could hear the savage beasts followed closely behind him, not sharing the same problem he had. Well, having lived in the dark forest since the beginning of time, they would have learned the path well and fine, if their sharp sense of smell and excellent sight didn't already. Natsu shrieked when he felt his skirt being snagged and found that one of the beasts had snapped it shut between its jaws, giving it a sharp yank and ripping of a piece of the fabric, exposing more of Natsu's leg. He panicked, falling to his hands and knees as he pushed himself back up and continued running; but it didn't help him that his fear and fright was beginning to manifested itself into the plants and trees around him as he ran to escape the hungry animals close on his heels.

He screamed.

The low hanging branches suddenly resembled claw-like hands, reaching out toward Natsu and snagging themselves onto his tattered clothes just as the tree trunks developed rather horrifying faces, sneering and laughing at the poor boy's turmoil just as one of the beasts made another snap at his exposed leg, barely missing his flesh that time. He cried in fright as he pushed his tired, sore legs to keep going, but due to the sudden appearance of more terrifying faces, he kept going in opposite directions, trying to get away from the many rapidly appearing sneering and laughing faces, running deeper and deeper into the woods, heart pounding just as loud and hard as the beasts' paws right behind him, though it sounded as though they weren't too sure as to what their prey was doing.

"Nghh- AH!"

He let out a sudden cry when the earth suddenly disappeared out from underneath him and as a result was sent tumbling down a steep embankment, tearing up more of his clothes exposing more of his already bloody and bruised flesh as he tumbled right into a swampy body of water while his pursers stood on the cliff side, growling and snarling before finally turning heel and disappeared. Simply giving up Natsu could hope. He coughed and spluttered, spitting the foul-tasting water from his mouth, before he opened eyes to see where he was only to have them grow wide with fear and he screamed. Floating in the dark waters were logs but his panic and fear-addled mind seemed to have him see something resemble crocodiles that were bobbing up and down on the water's surface toward him, snapping their jaws at him. Overcome by sheer terror, he eventually was able to pull himself out of the thick muddy water, leaving a thin sheet of mud and water on him as he half ran half crawled up the slope and away from the supposed danger.

Once Natsu reached the top of the hillside, he was greeted with more sights of scary to downright terrifying faces. No matter where he turned, they were everywhere. To the left, to the right, above him, hell even below him. They seemed to be all around him. Closing in on him, laughing at him and many others sneering at him as he tried to run and escape from them all. He gripped the side of his head as tears began to flow as the dark voices mocked him, laughed at him began to whisper words of promised suffering and death.

"GRAY!"

He screamed, backing up and falling into a small cave by means of a very narrow opening that only allowed Natsu and other smaller creatures to squeeze through. He pushed himself onto his legs once he reached the very middle of his new hiding place before he buried his face into his hands collapsed the stone floor, body shaking with violent sobs. He could hear the savage beasts sniffing and snarling at the very entrance of the cave. He cried even louder.

"Gray- Sting. Someone- Anyone- Help me..."

Breathing had suddenly became a hard thing to do.

There had to be some sort of mistake, some error in communication. This had to be a lie and a really bad one at that, or else a very clever but horrifying prank. He'd even accept it it was some dream that he somehow cooked up while traveling in the car, he did after all, only had about three hours of sleep the night before.

That was it.

This had to be a nightmare.

One that he was destined to never awaken from.

"What the hell are you playing at?"

Gray's brain had seemed to shut down at that point, not wanting to face reality of what he was looking at. Silent tears just rolled down his cheeks as he stared long and hard at the skull in front of him, not paying any attention to what was behind him at all.

"You wanted me to lead you to the boy and I did," He heard Montoya say but his voice seemed to sound like it was farther away. "That's him, right there."

"Bullshit." Laxus sounded far away too, his angry voice seemed to echo. "There's no way in hell that skull belongs to Natsu!"

"Oh~ But I guarntee you it is."

"BASTARD!" Sting's voice echoed. "If you're admitting to killing my brother, then very well, I'm going to return the favor tenfold! But we're not fucking stupid! We all know that a human body can't decay within 5 days!"

"Oh~ But it can. See, there's a certain known acid that, when combined in a large enough container with other chemicals, can melt the flesh off of bone in less than 36 hours."

"What?!"

Gray's entire body shivered as his breathing became more labored. He knew that was true, there was a type of acid that, yes, when combined with other types of chemicals could do that, but for the life of him, he couldn't remember the name of the combination or the names of chemicals. He stood up with his back still turned to them, clenching his fists and hung his head low not wanting the tears to fall but it was becoming a difficult task.

"You should've seen just how he died-"

Gray didn't need to, he could just imagine vividly on how Natsu possibly died and he wouldn't put past the fact the bastard went against his word and Natsu probably died sometime after Gray received the tape. There was no longer any point in stopping them as the tears began to flow down his face and lightly sprinkled the earth around him as he continued to stare at the skull. His body, somehow unnoticed, began to shake violently as the tears began picking up a faster pace. While it didn't squash or even put a dent in the feelings of anguish and pain or the intense feeling of never being able to see that sweet, sunny and lovable pinkette he loved, ever again. He was never going to hold him, kiss him, cuddle with him, tell him how much he loved him. Gray sucked in a shuddery breath.

He wasn't going to marry him.

But if there was one thing that could ease him, unfortunately, not by much, Gray found some form of comfort knowing that Natsu probably didn't die lying down.

He died fighting with everything he had left in him.

That was, until, the sick bastard opened his mouth further, cementing his place deeper into Death Row.

"He put up quite the fight. Screaming and yelling obscene words and struggling underneath me. Such a beautiful sight."

"You monster!"

"But all it took was a good length of rope and a good strong branch to end him- A good game a hangman he played-"

Something inside of Gray's brain had snapped allowing Gray to come back to reality with rage boiling over and taking control of his entire body as something that didn't add up made itself known.

"Watching him squirming during his death throes was quite the sight. Couldn't help myself but to 'play' with him one last time before we finished disposing of his body."

"YOU BASTARD!" Sting screamed. "I'LL KILL YOU! HOW DARE YOU DEFILE MY BABY BROTHER! YOU DISHONORABLE SICK-"

Sting raising and curled his hand into a fist, pulling it back as tears clouded his once prideful sapphire blue eyes. Laxus seemed to share the same feelings, minus the tears as he mimicked Sting's movements and raised his own fist, eyes filled with blazing red anger. What they heard next had them all look to Gray in utter confusion and bewilderment as they halt all action.

"Where is the rest of him?"

"Gray...?" Sting whispered, lowering his fist. "Wha-"

"Where is the rest of him, Montoya?!" Gray demanded, turning to face him. Rage written all over his face to the point it had Sting and Laxus, of all people tremble in fear. "All I see is the skull..."

"Gray... What are you-"

"That's a good question," Montoya smiled, prying himself out of Sting and Gajeel's grip. "But the answers are going to be tricky and a little hard to explain-"

Gray narrowed his eyes.

"What are blabbering about?" Laxus demanded.

"See, after we made that video, I had to convice my good friend to dispose and place his dead carcass in the forest- To distract you. In the event should one of us be captured-"

"What are you-"

"I knew it was a matter of time before you guys would've caught up to one of us. See, we're a lot clever then you think. Partners stick and protect each other. Since we broke out of jail we both agreed it would be only matter of minutes before one us got caught and thrown back to jail. Back to death row."

"Get to the point!" Laxus growled, cracking his knuckles.

"If one was to get the other was to escape. So after many hours, we got bored pretty quickly with the little whore so I convinced him to let me take care of the mess little Natsu made for us. So, if we head a little further up the trail, we should be able to find another one of the swallow graves- with another one of his body parts-"

"Wha-" They couldn't believe what they were hearing.

"But see I don't remember the exact locations, so forgive me... If you can." He grinned darkly. "We might need more shovels..."

"YOU CHOPPED HIM UP?!" Sting screamed as he moved forward only to be halted by Laxus's arms around his chest. "Oh God- No... Anything- ANYTHING. N-No- No-"

Sting staggered before slumping and falling to his knees against Laxus's chest causing the large man to stumble against the sudden weight. He buried his face into Laxus's hold as a sob wretched itself from his throat and he burst in tears.

CRACK

Both men gasped, while freezing and stared wide eyed as Gray, in two large strides, brought his fist up that immediately found its way to Montoya's face, causing him to go down from the force of the blow, but the dark haired man wasn't done with him yet, he was seeing nothing but the color red before his eyes. He straddled the other's chest so he couldn't get away and began to rhythmically started to pound both of his fists into the man's face. Ignoring the desperate pleas coming from the two men above him and the insane laughter from the man below him.

"Gray, no! STOP! You're killing him!"

He couldn't hear Sting's pleas over the pounding in his ears.

"GRAY!"

Still nothing.

"GRAY!"

His ears were pulsing, his skin felt like it was on fire, his dark eyes were clouded with tears and only capable of seeing the bloodied face of his victim.

He raised his fist ready to deal a finishing blow only to be halted by a vice-like grip on his arm. He didn't have to know that it was Laxus, with eyes filled with tears, yanked Gray into his arms and that gruff voice saying in a tone no one would imagine they would ever hear from the blonde man.

"Enough, Gray... Just- Just stop... Please."

Hearing Laxus actually beg him was what had Gray break down and cry, allowing large tears to fall down his face in large torrents, raising his blood-stained hands to his face, holding them to a stance similar to a defense position before burying his face into his hands as he sobbed and sobbed. Beneath him, the bastard who now officially and undisputedly ruined his life by taking the one thing he cherished and loved above all, groaned in pain, struggling to breathe through swollen, broken and bloodied flesh. But no one noticed as they were too busy holding Gray close.

Each consoling the dark haired man in their own way while tears of their own fell in unison onto the dark earth below.

Natsu groaned before he turned to one side and began to open his eyes slowly at the sounds of chirping birds.

Once the fog of sleep that was wrapped around his brain finally cleared, his eyes snapped open and he shot straight up into a sitting position. This wasn't his prison and if this isn't his room then where- He chuckled nervously. Now he remembered.

He escaped.

He was free.

He must've fallen asleep at some point after he escaped into his little hide away after all the 'excitement' he had from the night before. Last night's events seemed to replay themselves so freshly in Natsu's mind and he let out a startled squeak. He should've stayed back at his holding prison, but if he did that, then he would have surely been killed. The sick bastard did plan to rip his eye out after all.

But he could've been easily killed out here too!

"YOU CHOPPED HIM UP?!"

Natsu blinked, turning his head to the opening in the cave. He whimpered as he lifted himself up and scooted toward the very narrow opening to his hideout, peeking a cautious golden eye to view the still dark world. Scanning, trying to find something or someone...

Did he just hear... Sting?

He shook his head as he began to cautiously crawl out of the from his hide way, once he deemed it safe enough. It couldn't possibly be Sting. The voice sounded like it was too far away and Sting had to be in a town that was miles away from where ever the hell he was kept and currently was now. But the logic portion of his mind took a backseat to his optimism and it clearly refused to accept that there was no one here and he found himself walking, limping, toward the source of where he heard the voice.

To the straight and narrow.

He walked straight onward, while watching his surroundings, as he moved into the woods. He was surprised to see that after an half an hour of walking, the woods seemed to thin out as he kept pressing forward, so he must be coming to the edge of the forest and that alone seemed to give Natsu hope. So he pushed himself farther and farther until he found himself on top of a concrete road, the smooth gravel road felt so good underneath his bare feet he let out a sigh of relief.

A highway!

That could only mean he was either A. close to a town or B. he was about to reach one. He couldn't begin to describe the feeling he was experincing right now. He was so close to being free, free forever, to be back in Gray's arms, safe and sound and to make Jeremy pay big time! Like he silently vowed to himself he would. But there remained one question;

Which way to go?

He looked to both directions of the road, looking down each end as far back as the eye could see. Neither showed a sign that there would be a town on the end. He clicked his tongue and began waving his hands back in forth as he looked to both ways once more, trying to make up his mind as to which way he wanted go and he finally settled for one way.

Right.

Natsu began to follow the road down, careful to keep to the side of the road while remaining in the pathway for a car to see him, hoping to run into either a town or a car that had been pulled up on the side of the road. He winced as the pain seemed to creep up on him at a fast pace through his lower back and hips to every inch of his body with every step he took and he growled as he placed both hands on his back.

Bastard.

Guess the adrenaline wore off.

He walked what felt like had to be hours, his legs felt like they were about ready to give out from right under him at any given moment, seeing nothing and no one. Natsu sighed as his heart gave off a painful thump as what little hope he managed to cling to, began to whittle away once more. It was becoming harder and harder to find a reason to keep on going, but he still kept at it holding on to the belief something good was coming his way.

And it did.

After walking up a steady steep hill that was at a 10 percent increase, he reached the top of the incline and found just a few hundred yards, on the left hand side of the road facing him was a black Chevelot van parked to one side of the road. His eyes lit up and his brain began to cheer inside his head but he paused as he tilted his head to the side. That car looked oddly familiar, but he couldn't seem to place when and where he saw it and if he actually had seen it at all in his life.

He deadpanned.

That kind of thinking was what got him in this mess in the first place.

He took a step back, ready to bolt in case Jeremy was somehow able to contact Montoya, when he saw a familiar green-haired man step out at a quickened pace from out behind the parked vehicle before he paused and rubbed the palm of his hand into his face. The pinkette could see his whole body tremble from afar before an equally familiar blonde stepped out and gathered the green haired man into a tight hug. Natsu couldn't believe his luck and found himself grinning wildly.

It was Freed and Laxus.

Natsu began to run, more like limped, toward the two men, moving further out onto the open stretch of road as adrenaline began to course through his body once more. If they were here, then- then that meant there had to be an equally good chance that Gray was with them. His voice was hoarse from all the yelling he from last night and the many nights of torture he endured.

"Laxus- Freed."

Both men seemed startled by Natsu's voice and began looking everywhere for the source of it except behind them where Natsu was coming up from. Natsu paused the minute Gray appeared from between the two cars, not looking behind him either as he talked to the two men, Natsu could feel tears of happiness and relief as he brought both of his wounded hands to his mouth.

"Gray-"

Gray was here.

His Gray.

Here.

"Gray..."

Gray swiveled his head, trying find the source of where Natsu's voice was coming from as Natsu, eyes clouded with tears just as Gajeel and Lyon made their presence known. Natsu was beyond ecstatic.

He truly was free!

"GRAY! GRAY!"

That's when they looked behind them. They all looked pale, as though they just seen a ghost and even from this distance, Natsu could tell they were all crying. About what, he wasn't sure but all he knew was that he was home free. After awhile of staring, Gray's eyes shone with tears as a smile began to appear, followed by the others.

"Natsu...?"

Natsu smiled widely as more tears poured down his face as he nodded. Gray didn't need any further explanation as he began to sprint toward Natsu as the pinkette began walking painfully toward him, smile wide. But that was torn from him the minute the sound of a roaring car engine and screeching tires as bright lights appeared right behind Natsu at a rather alarming rate. Natsu's eyes grew wide as he slowly turned to look behind him as everyone froze and let out cries of shock and horror.

But there was nothing that anyone could do to stop a familiar 2006 dark red Mercedes car from hitting Natsu head on as it swerved trying to avoid him at the same time.

The feels! ;A;

They hurt! I actually cried typing this.