Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail.

Chapter 7

Day before the ritual

The Raijinshuu had only one more area of the kozern to search, and all of them hoped they would find her. They had contacted Makarov to let him know they still hadn't found her but were still searching.

It was getting close to night fall when Laxus stopped them. He kept his eyes trained to the edge of the forest, thinking he saw some movement.

"Cobra, do you see movement just inside the forest?" Laxus whispered. Cobra narrowed his eye and looked towards the forest. He nodded to show that he did see movement in the forest. They made their way to the forest, once they reached the edge, they made out the shapes of two people walking deeper into the forest. They slowly followed, careful not to make any noise. The two dragon slayers could hear the conversation between the two people in front of them.

"They are talking about Blondie. Cobra, you continue to follow them, the rest of us will wait back at the edge of the forest. I need to call gramps and let him know we found the mages, and you are following them. I will also tell gramps to send some back up." Laxus said. Cobra nodded and headed after them, while the others turned and went back to the edge of the forest but stayed hidden.

"Gramps, you need to send some back up. We believe that we found her, Cobra is following now to see if they're the ones that have her. How fast can you get help to the Heartfilia konzern?"

"I will have help there within a couple hours. Where on the konzern are you?" Makarov asked.

"Go behind the house and to the right is a forest, we are on the forest edge. I will be able to see who is coming and will exit the trees when they are close. Gramps, get the rune knights on standby."

"Of course, my boy. Make sure to rough them up a little first for messing with our Nakama!" Laxus had a vicious grin on his face as he let the lacrima go dark.

Cobra came back about an hour later, "These are the assholes who have Bright Eyes. I didn't follow them into the cave, but I could smell her." Everyone let out a sigh of relief that they had finally found Lucy.

"Gramps is sending back up, they should be here within the next hour or two."

"I think the backup is here, I can hear their souls." Laxus walked out from where they were hidden as Cana, Wendy, Juvia, and Warren walked up to the group. They all sat around coming up with a plan. Once the plan was set, they slowly and quietly followed Cobra to where Lucy was being held.

"Remember Wendy, stay back until one of us of get Lucy out of where they have her locked up." Wendy nodded and hid among rocks by the entrance of the cave. The others slowly made their way into the cave.

"Cobra, how many souls can you hear in there?"

"Ten, one of them is Bright Eyes. Her soul is faint though."

"Freed can you seen any runes?" He shook his head. He slowly drew his sword, ready to fight these mages and get his Lucy back. Laxus covered his hands with lightning, getting ready to charge, suddenly not worried about the plan after hearing the mages laughing about the torture Lucy went through.

"Let's go! Freed you get to Blondie as quickly as you can." Laxus said as he ran into the cave. Everyone ran after him. Laxus took down the two closest to him making sure the power up his lightning attacks more than normal. Freed ran in writing a rune to protect himself from attacks, while writing runes for pain, fear, and anguish on the dark mages closest to the cell that held Lucy.

Once he was by the cell, he quickly unlocked it with his runes. He looked around to see how the others were doing before walking into the cell. He knelt beside Lucy and choked on the bile that got stuck in his throat.

Laxus went after the one that he thought to be Dai, as he tried to escape.

"Lightning dragon's roar!" Laxus shouted, sending the powerful attack at Dai. It hit Dai; he screamed as the lightning coursed through his body. He collapsed with smoke rising off him. Laxus walked up to him and kicked him hard a couple times, and grinned when he heard the rib bones breaking. He looked around and seen that the others had subdued all the other dark mages and they were in the process of tying them up.

Freed walked out of the cell carrying Lucy and calling for Wendy. Wendy ran in, and gasped when she seen Lucy. Tears started falling down her face. She quickly knelt by Lucy to start healing her. Lucy's breathing was shallow, and it made Freed's heart constrict.

"How is she Wendy?" Laxus asked.

"She has several fractured ribs, I can heal part way. Her shoulder is dislocated, Laxus I need your help to pop it in, hold her up for me. Freed hold her legs." Wendy quickly popped the shoulder back into place. Lucy let out a whimper from the pain, but still didn't wake up. Wendy healed all the cuts she could.

"Where are her keys?" Wendy asked.

"I have them here." Bickslow held up her keys.

"Cobra, can you make sure they stay knocked out for a while with some poison?" Laxus asked with a grin. Cobra grinned viciously and went over to the dark mages. He made sure there would be lingering effects from the poison that would be very painful.

Freed took off his jacket and wrapped it around Lucy. Then picked her up and said, "Let's contact the rune knights to come get these guys."

Laxus got out the lacrima and called the rune knights. They then decided that Evergreen and Bickslow would wait for them, then meet the rest of the Raijinshuu at the hotel. The others were going to head back to the guild.

"Laxus call gramps and let him know. Then we can get a hold of Gajeel as well." Freed said. Laxus nodded and called gramps. Makarov had tears running down his face when he heard that they were successful in rescuing Lucy. He said that he would let the guild know the good news.

"Lightning Rod, did you guys find something?" Gajeel asked when he answered the lacrima.

"Yeah, we have Blondie, we are heading back to our hotel here for the night. Gramps says for you guys to head back to the guild."

"Okay we will head back."

After two hours of walking, they made it to the hotel room. Freed laid her on the bed.

"She needs to get cleaned up."

"We will wait until Ever gets back, then her and Wendy can do it." A golden light flashed in the room, and a maid spirit stood there.

"I can clean my Princess up. We have all been watching from the spirit world, and this is the least I can do for my Princess. Thank you for saving her. She means a lot to us." Virgo picked Lucy up and carried her to the bathroom. Wendy followed to see if she would be of any help.

"We should stay here until Blondie regains consciousness. Don't need to add too much stress to her right now, especially when we don't know her mental state right now." Freed nodded his head in agreement. Virgo carried Lucy out of the bathroom and laid her back on the bed. She bowed before disappearing to the spirit world. Freed sat in a chair by her side, and Wendy crawled into the bed with her.

Evergreen and Bickslow entered the hotel to find Freed sitting in a chair by a now clean Lucy, Wendy sleeping on the bed by her, and Laxus sitting on the couch listening to his sound pods. Freed looked up when they walked in.

"Did the rune knights take in the dark mages?" They both nodded, as they looked towards Lucy.

"Has she woken up yet?" Evergreen asked. Freed shook his head and went back to reading his book. Laxus explained to them that they would be staying until Lucy woke up. Bickslow sat on the couch across from Laxus, and Evergreen went to take a shower.

Everyone decided to try and get some rest, not knowing when she would wake up. Freed decided to sleep in the chair so he would be close to Lucy. Evergreen took the other bed, while Bicks and Laxus took the couches.

Around two in the morning they were jolted awake by screaming. Lucy lay thrashing wildly around from the dream she was stuck in. Freed jumped up and gently grabbed Lucy's shoulders and lightly shook her.

"Lucy. Lucy! Wake up! It's a dream, you are okay. Wake up Lucy. You are safe now." Freed said. After a few minutes Lucy stopped thrashing but continued to whimper. She refused to open her eyes, believing she was still dreaming.

"Lucy open your eyes please! I promise you are safe now, it's me Freed. Wendy, Bicks, Ever and Laxus are here too." Lucy's eyebrows furrowed together. Then she slowly started to open her eyes.

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