Lucy

It was closing to nightfall - the small window in her cage did at least give her a time indicator as shadows fell across the floor. There'd been mostly silence with an occasional maniacal laugh from down the hallway every so often. Back in control of her emotions Lucy had been trying to come up with a plan, any plan really, and had failed miserably.

The best she could come up with was somehow storming her captor when he came to release her which given the fall in the sun wouldn't be too long now, all the bars were enchanted and she had no magic so any chance of overwhelming him was slim to none but she was a Fairy Tail mage and wasn't going to give up now.

Her magical dragon was almost pulsing on her shoulder - warmth was spiralling around the circle constantly, it gave her a soothing feeling even as she heard footsteps coming back to her cage. She stood as readied herself as best she could.

Natsu

"Come on guys she's this way I can feel it!!"

It had taken some time to work out how to turn on his 'Lucy tracker' but now he had it her location was clearer to him than it had ever been with smell which with his nose that was quite something. His body knew instinctually which way to go - he was feeding Happy directions and the others followed, for speed him they were all airborne Carla carried Wendy and Erza was carrying Gray with her Black Wing Armour.

Loke had very reluctantly stayed behind with the rest of the guild - he would be able to easily update everyone when they had Lucy back as he could communicate to her through her key, there was also the indicator that if Loke vanished the rescue party would have failed and the guild would know - but no one had voiced this as a reason for him to stay believing fully in the rescue party and the tenacity of Lucy herself

The sun had just set and he had a bad feeling, he's not felt Lucy's fear since they'd left the guild earlier but she was definitely starting to get antsy about something. He stopped focussing on what she was feeling and just kept trying to send back some reassurance to her as he had earlier.

They'd left Magnolia and skirted by Hargeon, they were now in a mountain range and he knew they were close, sure enough one more corner and they could see a cave entrance that had Lucy's smell radiating out - that was a good sign that he could smell her again too. He signalled the group down and by the looks of it Wendy had picked up her scent too as she'd headed down before his signal - that would be good if they needed to split up.

The group landed down quietly outside the entrance, Natsu lit up his hand with a flame to help them see down the pitch black cave and the group started towards the direction he knew in his bones and nose that Lucy was, they travelled for a while through a labyrinth of tunnels - at each connection Natsu led the way - his Lucy tracker left no room for question and he knew the way instinctually at this point.

"...for Laxus!! And just you wait till Natsu and the others get here, they'll really teach you a lesson!!"

Clear as day it was Lucy's voice - all notion of being quiet was gone for the group at her outburst and they fled full speed towards her. As they rounded a corner in the tunnel light came in from the other end and they could see the tunnel opened out to an open area within which seemed to be a stone table (the assumption it had been meant for Lucy but it was thankfully empty). The green masked man was on the floor - mask askew and unmoving but no Lucy.

He knew she was here, he could smell her - could feel she was here, heck he'd damn well heard her here given a lecture but she was nowhere to be seen.

The opening they were in was bright - really bright even for moonlight and that's when he looked up to the 'moon' to check only to find the moon wasn't the source of the light (at least not the majority of it). Floating above them was a giant ball of golden fire...golden fire that smelt a lot like Lucy? And that's when he found her - squinting to see through the flames was Lucy in the centre thankfully not burning to a crisp. No, in fact she seemed to be controlling the fire that enveloped her and formed fiery wings behind her.

And then she saw them, "Natsu! Everyone, you guys came for...". The wings crackled out and he was running before he knew it, she seemed to lose consciousness and was falling fast, the flames dying down as she fell as he jumped up and grabbed her, the last of the flames dying down as he landed on his feet with his Lucy safely back in his arms.

"Course we did Luce", he beamed down at her - proud she'd obviously managed to overpower her captor and for whatever weird fire thing she'd just done. Hopefully she could do it again, and maybe just maybe he could eat them!!

"You should come see this Natsu", Erza beckoned him over to the fallen captor that the rest of the group had tied up and removed the mask from to reveal none other than Ivan!

"This guy again!!! The hell does Laxus' dad want with Lucy, and he messed with his own son! Let me at him!"

"Hold on flame brain, can't you see he's already down. Lucy beat you to it, he's out for the count"

"What do you guys think happened here?" Wendy was glancing nervously around the opening they were in, with the table it was obviously something sacrificial but without knowing what happened they had no way to know just what Ivan had been hoping to achieve.

"I'm not sure Wendy, we'll have to ask Lucy when she wakes up. And of course Ivan too - let's take him back for the Master to deal with, I'm sure Laxus will want some answers too no doubt."

Soon the group was on their way back, on foot this time with their extra passengers, Gray had made a cage on wheels that him and Erza were pulling along, Natsu still carried Lucy refusing to put her down for even a moment, she hadn't woken up yet but she (and curiously the little dragon too) just seemed to be soundly asleep both exhausted.

Slightly shorter chapter than normal, I'm on holiday and writing this poolside on my phone so apologies for any weird grammar in here, doing checks isn't as easy! Couldn't wait to release this bit but next chapter will explore the exactly what happened :)

Coppereign12 thank you for your review, really love hearing your view on the chapters and ideas coming through. Glad you're enjoying :)