Hey Minna! I'm back! I've got another chapter here!

Anyway, DISCLAIMER! I do NOT own Fairy Tail! All those rights go to Master Hiro Mashima! I only own the plot! Enjoy!

Chapter 20

"Do you wish to contact them before we head out?"

I glanced up to the boyish face of Zeref in surprise. I walked down the hallway, now fully clothed and on our way to the garage where Zeref would lead me back to the Dragneel Plantation.

"Contact them how?" I asked. He explained how the ride would be about five hours at most. Lyon and I had arrived here with Zeref's servants around eight and now it was eleven thirty. I had to wait for Zeref to cancel his appointments he had that day, which surprisingly took longer than necessary. Apparently he was supposed to meet with a councilman and had to reschedule. When I asked him why he would do that to someone so important, he only looked to me with a smile and said his long lost cousin was more important than talking politics with a greedy old geezer.

"Do they have a phone?" he asked. I only gave him a lost look. He sighed and guided me to a round room with beige walls and carpeting to match. It was relatively small with a wooden desk in front of three narrow windows with light green drapes and two chairs to the side of it, cut from the same wood. Across from it were two beige couches opposite each other, an armchair of the same fashion adjacent to them and a coffee table in the center. Behind all of that was a medium sized fireplace, a small fire smoldering in the hearth. Zeref crossed the room to the desk and lifted something from it.

"You said you came from the Dragneel Plantation." I nodded. "I have worked with Mr. Dragneel before and so I'm pretty sure they own a phone. We can call them and inform them of our travel there." With that, my dark haired cousin spun his fingers around on the object he called a phone. I waited several seconds then Zeref started speaking.

"Hello, this is Zeref Black of Grimoire Heart Enterprises. Is Mr. Dragneel available?" I heard some mumbling. Was he talking to someone through the device? I stared at him in awe at this new finding. "Yes thank you…..Hello, Mr. Dragneel. My name is Zeref Black of Grim…..Ah so you remember me. That's good. Anyway, I was hoping to come by your place. I have something important that you might like to have back….. Well you see I have recovered Gray Fullbuster and Lyon Bastia, two of your slaves." I heard a lot of noise coming from the phone. "Yes…yes….yes…..yes sir I'm on my way right now. I'll be there within five hours….yes…alright, I'll see you then." He set the phone down. "Alright Gray. You, Lyon and I are heading back to Magnolia. You're going to see your lover again!" I nodded excitedly as I followed Zeref out of the room and now to the garage.

It wasn't until I was seated in the coach-as far away from the now guilty looking Lyon as possible-that I realized that Zeref hadn't told the Master how he actually stole me and Lyon. He lied.

Natsu's POV

I woke up to being dragged out of the coach by Henry. I knew the carriage had stopped, but that didn't mean the world ceased whirling around me. It only seemed to get worse, especially when Henry mounted me onto his back and carried me to the Heartfilia mansion. I moaned and tried to squirm away but my muscles wouldn't work for me. I just felt my stomach churn faster and faster, making me feel weak and helpless. Crap. I couldn't take it anymore.

"Henry," I moaned, twisting from his grip even more so. He only held on tighter, not helping my situation one bit. "Henry put me down, humph." I covered my mouth, feeling something hot rise in my throat. "Or I'm going to puke!" My vision became blurry and I fisted Henry's uniform in my hand, trying to hold back the bile.

He stopped suddenly, making my stomach lurch uncomfortably. He reluctantly set me down on the ground, where I fell over in discomfort. He leaned down to my limp form, but I managed to weakly raise a hand to wave him off. He reluctantly left me alone while I savored the feeling of the ground beneath me until my head stopped spinning.

"Young Master?" Henry asked warily, taking a step toward me in an attempt to try and console me again. However, when my breathing finally turned back to normal I stood up. I straightened my clothes out and wiped the dirt from them before giving him a carefree smile.

"It's alright Henry," I assured him. "It's just motion sickness."

"Oh, I'm so sorry sir." He fell to the ground on one knee and kept repeatedly apologizing. I held my hands up in front of my chest. Yep, that's a newbie for you.

"Nah, Nah, it's alright, you didn't know. Just, stop kneeling, it's no big deal. Seriously, we have a job to do." This got him to stop. Slowly, he rose to his feet and nodded. I grinned then patted his shoulder before proceeding to the large doors of the Heartfilia plantation. I took one of the big handles in the middle and banged it on the door as hard as I could. It was strange. Normally there was a guard on duty to open the doors on the outside. I wondered if they were really that short on staff after what happened.

"Who is it?" a voice called before the giant doorway opened. There stood a butler a timid butler, hiding behind the door. His seeming closed eyes gazed at us until opening the door wider, allowing us entrance.

"Hello Young Master Dragneel. I'm sorry for the delay. We weren't expecting you for another…" He paused to glance at his pocket watch hanging from coat. "Another ten minutes. Never mind that though. I shall lead you to Miss Heartfilia. She's in the west drawing room." He turned on his heel, not waiting for a reply, simply expecting us to follow him. Henry and I trailed him right on his heels until we arrived in front of a large wooden door.

The room was relatively large, many chairs scattered about. A large window framed by deep blue drapes in the back gave a view of the rolling greenery of the plantation. By the large fireplace was a simple couch where Lucy, wearing a pink sundress that was ruffled on the skirt and came off the shoulders with puffy short sleeves and matching heels, sat next to her orange haired lover, Loke, who wore a clean white dress shirt and dark blue jeans. Behind her was the blue haired slave she had with her last time I was here. Levy, I think her name was? She still wore a slaves outfit, a grey dress and moccasins, however if had a pink carnation was stitched over her left breast. That made me think. Maybe we should change the slave dress code. It was law for them to wear grey, so maybe it might be fun to try something more colorful.

Pulling out of my thoughts, I strolled over to the blonde girl, grinning at her melancholy expression. She held Loke's hand tightly as she stood up, seeing I had arrived.

"Hello Natsu. You're early," she said sweetly, giving me a hug. She smelled like strawberries.

"It was urgent," I replied. "I heard you got attacked too." She nodded solemnly.

"Yes. Seven slaves are dead and twenty are injured. We're trying to pinpoint where the culprits might be heading. We found some foot prints leading a mile outside the plantation borders where large wheel tracks were found. Half of our guard is out there now, trying to find them, but it's been hours and no word from them. We had a search party sent out to them just a short while ago."

"That's horrible," I exclaimed. "I sent some of my guards out as well. There were tracks about a mile outside my Plantation also. Where did yours lead?"

"Last I heard they were heading west. Towards your Plantation," she informed me.

"What time were the attacks. And what kinds of injuries were treated?" I questioned. I brought a piece of paper that dad gave me before I left. I opened it up to find a list in my dad's loopy cursive.

Slaves Injuries Report:

-13 dead; 7 by head injury, six by puncture to heart and poisoning.

-30 injured:

-all concussions and something broken

-Twelve with broken legs and arms

-Thirteen with just broken legs

-Four with just broken arms

-Seven with punctures to the heart. Did not reach, though they were poisoned. Nearly dead because of that.

My eyes bulged at the amount of injuries.

"Yea, there were a lot of puncture wounds, specifically toward the heart. Almost all of them died of it. Others were fatal blows to the head. And then everyone injured had something broken. It was awful." I looked up from my list and saw tears forming in her eyes. Loke pulled her closer and gave her a hug. Lucy silently cried into her lover's shoulder while I looked back down to the list. My head started to hurt.

"Young Master?" Henry asked nervously. "Are you quite alright?" I shook my head. My hands began to tremble, the words blurring together. This wasn't right. What the hell happened that night? Broken limbs, yeah that's normal for a slave depending on the job station they were positioned at. But the punctures and abnormal amount of concussions. I mean it wasn't often that there were puncture wounds. Unless it was knives, but then…dad would've written it down, said something about what kind of knife was used.…. Who the hell could've done something like this? And for what reasons? I slammed the list down on the coffee table, growling. I rubbed my fingers on my temples.

"Sir?" Henry asked timidly.

"Dammit!" I yelled. "Who the hell would've done this?" I slammed my fists onto the table, rattling it. I was semi-surprised to see an indent, but I didn't care.

A few tense moments of silence passed until Lucy decided to answer my question. "I don't know Natsu. But whoever it was must have something against slaves. Plus they're armed." She wiped her red eyes with a pink laced handkerchief.

"Armed with odd weapons," I added gravely. "Have you gotten any report on what kind of poison they used?" She gave me a startled look. She blinked at me a few times before her eyes hardened and she straightened up.

"There was poison involved?" she asked. I nodded. Why was she so confused?

"You didn't know?" That was weird. She must have more information on this than I do, especially since I just found out about all this. How could she not know about the poison already?

"No, I just know there was puncture wounds, I didn't know there was poison. That changes things," she responded, turning around, walking toward the window. I raised my eyebrows and glanced to Loke. He and I shared a look before he turned back to his blonde lover.

"Lucy, babe?" Loke asked. He reached out to her, but she only shook her head and waved him off. She crossed the room to the window and she ruffled through the drapes searching for something.

"There have been other attacks, not just you and mine, on Plantations," she began explaining, albeit distractedly. "They started with small Plantations, working their way up to the larger ones. I have researched reports on how attacks like those had injured and dead slaves with puncture wounds and severe blows to the head." Lucy tugged a thick rope from behind the drapes and pulled on it several times. A slave's call. "However, from what I gathered, none of them had said anything about poison. And now, now that I think about it, I do recall how my greenhouse was ransacked." She strode over back to Loke and sat down on the couch, grabbing a stationary and pen, vigorously writing something down. A knock sounded from the door. That was fast.

"Come in," Lucy called. A timid looking slave entered. She wore a grey slave's dress that came to the knees and was slightly off her shoulders and the grey shoes, nothing special about that, but whoa, her hair. It was vibrant pink and curly at the bottom. Her soft brown eyes gazed at here Master shyly as she shifted around.

"Here, Aries," Lucy said, striding over to the slave. "Take this to my father and quickly." The Aries girl nodded and took off with the note. "Levy, go get me a phone." The blue haired girl nodded curtly and ran out the door after Aries.

I looked to Lucy, surprised. "You own a phone?"

"Yes, don't you?"

"Well, yeah, but I didn't know you did. It would've made communication a whole lot easier," I joked. I gave her a grin but she only returned it half-heartedly as she stood up. She rubbed a hand up and down her arm in uneasiness. Loke wrapped an arm around her shoulders and gave her a tight squeeze. That was when Levy came back in carrying a small black phone. (Think of those old phones from back in the forties or from what I know are from the forties). She set it down on the coffee table with a small grunt. Lucy immediately disengaged herself from Loke's embrace and plopped down on the sofa and began to circle her fingers on the dial.

"Who are you calling?" I asked after she dialed nine numbers.

"A friend," was her vague answer. I looked to Loke, but even he seemed at a loss, if the shrug he gave me was any indication.

"Hello, Crux. Yeah it's Lucy," she said, receiver already on her ear. Some mumbling came from the other line. "Yes I'm fine and you?" A lot of brisk mumbling. This guy must be a talker. "Well, I'm glad your wife is getting better, but Crux, I have a favor to ask of you. Can you come to the Plantation please? It's urgent….A half-hour's fine but please hurry. I have something that needs to be analyzed and quickly. I'll explain everything when you get here…Yes thank you. See you soon." She set the receiver down and sighed.

"Who was that?" I asked. Lucy stood up.

"Levy take this back to where you found it." The blue haired girl nodded and did as she was told. We watched the bluenette waddle out of the room before I got an answer. "An old friend. Crux of Celestial Inc. A simple pharmacy company on the outside, however, underneath all that…. There's an underground organization that is funded by the government to create toxins for the service. Few aristocratic people know about this organization, and that includes my father, and in extension, me. Plus, it helps that he and my father went to school together. Anyway, the reason for this is because certain plants in my greenhouse are sold to the company. Herbs and plants that are recorded to be stolen."

"So Crux is a part of the organization," I stated, understanding dawning on me. "And he can tell us about the poison."

"He's the head of the organization," she corrected. "And yes, he's coming here to analyze the poison. It could be very bad if we have a radical group running wild not only armed but has a hold of poison too." I nodded my agreement.

"I understand. Is there anything I can do to help?" I offered. She shook her head.

"Not at the moment," she replied, taking a seat on the couch. I sat down on one of the soft chairs with white cushions across from her and I motioned for Henry to take the twin one neighboring mine. He slicked his dark brown hair behind his head, plopping down. He was sweating. I could see the pit stains coming from under his arms.

"Hey, Natsu, where's your Gray?" I jumped at Lucy's question. I guess I was zoning out more than I thought. "I thought you would've brought him." She snuggled up next to Loke, who wrapped an arm around her shoulders. Levy made her way around the couch and took a seat on the arm of the furniture. Hey, she was small enough to do it.

"Well, that's kinda hard to explain…" My voice trailed off as my heart clenched from the loss. It's just been over an hour since I found out he was taken. I looked back to Lucy. She gave me a concerned look. I took a deep breath and explained what I was told about Gray's disappearance. When I finished, her hands were covering her mouth and her eyes were glistening with tears once more. Loke took out another hanky for her. Gratefully accepting it, she blew her wiped her eyes and blew her nose.

"That's terrible," she said, handing the cloth back to her orange haired lover, who took it and stuffed it back in his pocket.

"It's ok," I responded. "I just wish I had more information. It was really sudden." I wasn't at the meeting with the authority-which I'm starting to get mad at my dad on that-and I wasn't told much else except that some guards were sent to follow tracks that were found outside the Plantation. Now that I think about it, other than the list of wounds and the knowledge that guards were after the carriage, I was practically in the dark about all this. I am the heir to the Dragneel Plantation, why wasn't I at the meeting? I have a lot of questions about what happened. Like what time the attacks were or who were the slaves that were attacked and what cabins were they in or better yet, what was the damage on the Plantation as a whole? I only went to the cabins for not even five minutes to bring medical help and inform them of Gray's disappearance, that's not enough time to investigate. Even Lucy was aware that her greenhouse was searched and manhandled. I was going to talk to my dad when I got back.

"I think I could be of help," Henry decided to share. "Although we didn't know that Gray-sama was kidnapped overnight, we did send out some guards to track the carriage around eight in the morning. It was strange that we didn't get any word from them yet." I stared at him. That's right. He was at the meeting. Anger started to build inside me. I wondered again, why wasn't I at the meeting? It wasn't fair that a newbie was at an important meeting and I was left to sleep. What the hell!

"And it's almost eleven thirty now. Anything could've happened to them," Lucy commented. Henry nodded.

"We also noted that there was a second pair of track outside the Plantation," he added. What?

I pushed myself from my seat, anger starting to get the better of me. They all looked at me, bewildered, but I ignored them, taking two strides to the worker to the side of me. I grabbed hold of his front collar and yanked him toward my face. He tried to shrink away, and I couldn't blame him, but I held onto him in a death grip. I was furious.

"What do you mean there was another set of tracks!" I growled.

"Natsu!" Lucy exclaimed, but I barely heard her. I saw her stand in my peripheral while Loke stayed back, shying away from me. I discarded them and kept my focus on the brown eyed worker.

Henry looked at me fearfully. He trembled in my grip, but I only tightened my fist. I needed answers. If there was another set of tracks, then which one was Gray on? Was there more attackers? Did they split up? What the hell happened?

I didn't voice these thoughts, only waited for Henry to get his bearings. The anger didn't subside, but rational thought did sort of breakthrough. I knew I probably shouldn't be taking my fury out on him. It wasn't his fault. But I needed answers.

Henry gulped several times, his Adam's apple bobbing up and down in time, before answering. He was sweating even more now. "There was more than one pair of tracks, sir. I don't know why the Master didn't tell you. But there were two carriage tracks outside the Plantation on opposite sides of the Plantation. One led east toward the town near the road, the other led west to the Black Forest. They were sent out at the same time and neither has sent word of any progress before we were sent here."

"Why didn't my father tell me about the second tracks?" I asked. He whimpered. I loosened my grip on him and he let out a sigh of relief. I tried to repress my anger now that I was starting to get some answers.

"I-I don't know sir," he stuttered. "I don't know much more than you do. I was called to the meeting only a few minutes before you came and was briefly informed. I can't tell you much else." I tightened my grip before releasing him, shoving him down onto the furniture. He skidded back several feet, but I disregarded him before returning my attention back to the couple on the couch.

"Can I use one of your phones?" I whispered. I tried not to let my anger get the best of me as I watched Lucy nod and stand up. Loke grabbed onto her wrist but she shook him off, unafraid. In fact, she looked rather determined. For what reason I have no idea, but I followed her out of the room without question. Everyone trailed after us, but I ignored them all as we wound our way through the labyrinth of a mansion until we came to a study. I strode across the room quickly and spun the familiar numbers on the dial. It rang three times until someone picked up.

"Hello, Dragneel Plantation this is Cherry speaking, how my I help you?"

"Cherry. It's Natsu. Can you put me through to my dad?"

"Young Master? Is that you? Yes of course. Just hold on a moment." I waited, tapping my foot as I did.

"Hello? Natsu? Where are you calling from?" I heard excitement from his end.

"The Heartfilia Plantation. Dad, I have to ask you something-"

"Before you say anything, first I have something I want to say as well."

"But-"Now he was pissing me off. Unless he has information on Gray's whereabouts, I didn't care what he wanted to tell me, but he kept going, ignoring my protest.

"I found Gray. He's on his way back home with Zeref Black."

SOooooooo, how was it? I know I haven't been consistent on the updating, but I'm trying. I had just finished finals, which took a lot of my time, especially the math part. Hey, how many of you are good at pre-calculus? I'm curious. Sorry, getting off topic here. Anyway, please leave some reviews! They mean a lot to me! If I get a lot, I'm more likely to update faster! Constructive criticism is appreciated! Also, for those of you who I promised I'd have Gratsu included in here, I'm sorry about that! I was just writing away and then suddenly this happened... But I can guarantee Gratsu in the next chapter! For sure! I promise! So, anyway, until next chapter! Scarlet out! Loves y'all!

On a side note, I have changed my way of responding to reviews to PMing you. The anonymous reviews, however, I will do at the end of the chapters like I have done previously.