Author's Note: Hey! It's been awhile! I've got lots of editing to do, but I'm making steady progress on this fic. Is everyone reading 100 Years Quest? How about Edens Zero? Personally, I'm enjoying both so far.

As always, thank you for the feedback!

Finding privacy was not an easy thing to do when stuck on a ship controlled by men. Lucy was certainly not alone on days where she was paraded around in skimpy clothing. Those days were exhausting, mentally more so than physically. Standing around and doing Bora's bidding eventually hurt her feet, though it was not nearly as taxing as being stuck on cleaning duty for one of the washrooms.

She was on her hands and knees on the floor, scrubbing the old wood beneath her with a damp rag. Sighing, she turned over and sat with her back against the wall. Lucy stared at the toilet across from her that was crusted with old urine and stained brown inside along the water line. The sink wasn't much better. It'd originally been white, but had developed a yellowish sheen from old age. Worse, the metal of the faucet was chipping off on various parts and rust was leaking down towards the drain. She didn't even want to think about what the specks on the porcelain were from. The fact that she was supposed to clean this room was bad enough.

On the other hand, she was alone. Lucy fished out the key she'd stuck into the side of her bra, clutching it like a lifeline. This was the only one she had left—her one connection to the outside world that she had remaining.

Lucy held her key forward, keeping her voice low so as to not alert the guard. "Open the Gate of the Canis Minor, Nikora!"

She felt a pull on what little magic she had left in her reserve and a small spirit came tumbling out of thin air, landing on his feet with a flourish. He looked like other dog spirits she had seen in books before with a round head and horn-like nose, but his cute button eyes were unique and his whole body was white. The dog spirit beamed at her despite his nonstop trembling.

"Puu! Puun!" he greeted her enthusiastically.

Lucy smiled back at the little spirit, the one beam of light in her life. She could feel the beads of sweat forming on her skin already. Her magic reserves were already fading. "You're name's Plue? It's nice to meet you. I'm Lucy." She shook his paw and got straight to business. "Which days work for you?"

"Puun! Puu puun!"

She nodded, trying to remember exactly what he was saying as she wiped the sweat from her brow. "I'm sorry. I don't have a lot of time."

He patted the top of her hand gently, as if he understood. To her surprise, Plue climbed into her lap and lay his body flat against her torso, his arms wide. It was only after a second that she realized that he was hugging her. Lucy stroked his head with a smile. She...really needed that.

Branded by HawkofNavarre

Chapter 5

This Key

Lucy was absolutely convinced that Arisa had been sent by some higher power to make her life more miserable. If the cracking skin on her fingers or status as a captive to a madman weren't bad enough, this girl certainly made things pretty terrible.

She liked to talk. Of course, if talking were all it was, Lucy's opinion of this insufferable harpy likely wouldn't be as harsh. Unfortunately, the obnoxious narcissistic bragging started as soon as she woke up, usually to Rei who was pumped too full of drugs to really process what was being said to her. When on the receiving end of the same treatment, Kagura was too passive to say anything mean and too indifferent to ask her to go away. Lucy, on the other hand, was short-tempered. She couldn't handle more than two minutes of the chatter before telling Arisa off. This never boded well for Lucy considering Arisa was a major snitch.

Lucy was never going to understand how anyone would possibly want the attention of the man who kidnapped them, but there was living proof in her room right now. Today she was bothering Kagura who sort of mindlessly nodded along. Rei was on her cleaning shift for the day, leaving Lucy to spend some blessed time on her own. This was nothing close to real privacy, but being left alone with her thoughts during the day was a rare thing to come by.

She lay on her stomach, the scratchiness of the mattress against her skin making her belly itch. Reaching forward, she tucked her hand into the hole she'd picked into the side of her mattress and wrapped her fingers around the Canis Minor key. Her thumb ran over the smooth ridges of the symbol, sighing as the tension left her body. That key offered her comfort like nothing else on this wretched boat.

"What's your deal, blondie?" Arisa asked from her spot on Kagura's mattress. "Ever since you got Touya in trouble, you've been all whiny and brooding. That kind of thing is for, like, Fumiko. You don't pull it off like her."

Letting out an exasperated huff, Lucy let go of her key and turned over on her mattress. There were so many things wrong with that last statement that she didn't even know where to start.

Firstly, she hadn't gotten Touya in trouble; as soon as Bora walked back into his office that day, he'd come to his own conclusions. The man had punished Touya in some way that Lucy hadn't been privy to, but the next time she saw him, he had two black eyes, a swollen jaw line, and he stayed far away from her. She'd left the room without any difficulty only because she'd been sitting on the ground like a good little girl by the time he'd gotten back. She was also slightly satisfied the man had gotten a bit of what he deserved.

Second of all, it was just plain wrong to compare her to Fumiko. Both of them had certainly underwent a rather traumatizing experience, but Fumiko had been paraded around naked in front of the entire crew while they harassed her by pinching her skin and throwing food. The girl was completely shattered from that incident, not "whiny and brooding." Lucy, at least, counted herself lucky to have escape such a horrifying event like that.

And lastly, she wasn't trying to pull off anything. She was angry and filled with angst—which, oddly enough, were the emotions she would've described back when she was stuck at home as well. In truth, all she'd done was go from one prison to the next. At least the first one had had better living conditions.

"Why don't you just worry about yourself?" Lucy retorted, staring down the brunette with an aggravated expression.

"Oh I'm not worried," she replied with a haughty shrug, "you just happen to be in my sightline and it's a very annoying sight."

"I hope I make your eyes bleed," Lucy muttered under her breath.

"What was that, blondie?"

"Leave her alone, Arisa," Kagura finally cut in. She was seated on her bed with her knees pulled up into her chest. "I don't see why you're trying to pick a fight. She's on cleaning duty as soon as Rei gets back anyway."

Arisa scoffed and threw her waist-length hair back before standing up and retreating to her own mattress. "You're pretty annoying too."

That makes three of us, Lucy thought to herself as she rolled her eyes. Fortunately, Arisa lay down and turned to face the wall while Lucy mouthed a "thank you" to the only person on this ship she even remotely considered an ally. Kagura sent back a small nod before closing her eyes. The girl retreated into her own world as she sat cross-legged in silence. It was something Kagura commonly did to pass the time. Lucy thought maybe she was meditating.

A few more minutes passed before Rei returned from her shift cleaning. The henchman who had escorted her looked pointedly at Lucy who discreetly tucked the Canis Minor key into her closed fist. She stood and walked by her roommate without a word. Rei rarely said anything these days anyway, but the broken skin on her hands indicated that she'd probably been on duty in the engine room. Bora had little use for her since he'd started on her sedatives. It was no mystery as to why he always assigned her the jobs using steel wool.

Lucy was thankful that she ended up on laundry duty for the day. It would spare her hands the cruel treatment Rei had undergone and the physical exertion wasn't as intense. Although cleaning shit stains off a bunch of men's underwear was not her definition of "fun," at least Bora had actually put a washer and dryer on the ship.

There were three sets of utilities in the laundry room and that generally meant that two other girls were working in there with her, but for whatever reason, today she was alone. The clothes bin beside the door did look a little sparse compared to usual. With the guard waiting for her outside for the duration of her shift, she hid her key in her bra and got working right away. The best thing about doing laundry was that when the clothes were in the washer, she could get a minute to herself. That meant she could possibly call Plue again—something she'd been itching to do ever since she'd summoned him the first time.

She dragged the clothing bin over to the folding bench of the dark room and began sorting the articles into piles, far past cringing over dirty underwear. It was much nicer to think about the maids back home who had taught her how to do all these instrumental house chores. When she'd been living at home, she had been so starved for attention that even doing housework sounded good if she had someone to do it with her.

It didn't take long for Lucy to organize the dirty clothes and place them in the washers. A perfect three loads went in and she pulled clothes out of the dryer and discarded them on the bench. With the clothes washing and lots of things to fold, she thought it was the perfect time to summon Nikora.

She pointed the key forward, trying to stay as quiet as she'd been the last time. "Open the Gate of the Canis Minor, Nikora!"

Plue abruptly fell into the pile of clothes on the bench and clumsily stood back up to wave at her. The little celestial spirit looked a bit ridiculous as he blearily smiled at her with a pair of boxers hanging off his pointy nose. Lucy bit back a laugh. It was such a warm feeling. When was the last time she had felt good about something?

"Puun," he said as he pointed to his waving hand. It was only then that Lucy realized he was carrying something that looked like a pen with him.

She took the pen from him curiously. There seemed to be a piece of paper coiled tightly around the object, bound by the pen clip. Her brow furrowed as she pulled the pen away to let the paper unfurl. There was writing on it and her whole body spasmed in shocked when she read the first word.

Lucy.

The piece of paper fluttered to the floor, curling back into itself, and she stared at it in disbelief. Why was her name on it?

Still frozen in place, her brain still wasn't quite working when Plue stumbled off the bench with a bunch of underwear latched around his little limbs. At least the boxers had fallen off his nose. He picked up the paper and waved it at her forcefully.

She tried to pull herself together and do the logical thing. Plue only had her best interests at heart and every second that she spent in a daze was another second wasted. There was no telling when she would get another chance to be alone. With that in mind, she accepted the note and smoothed it out against the surface of the workbench. She swallowed as she read her name again, trying to slow her heart rate.

Lucy,

I found your letter in Hargeon's harbour and I want you to know that I'm going to help you. My friend Yukino has your keys. She's a Celestial Spirit Mage so she'll take good care of them. We talked to your spirit Aquarius too. I think she's worried about you, but she'll be okay because I'm going to find you.

Aquarius told us you have a key for Canis Minor, so we're giving this letter to Yukino's bug thing and hoping he'll find yours. We know your name and if you're reading this, now you know ours. If you get this, write us back. We'll find you. I promise.

"Na...tsu...?" she said out loud. It was the name signed at the bottom of the note, the person who claimed she would save her. Her and Yukino.

A flurry of emotions ran through her as she stared at the ink the page. She didn't quite know how to settle herself after learning all of these things. Her mind was working overtime just trying to focus on one thing. Then, instead of doing something productive with the new information she'd just obtained, she clutched the letter in her hands as her elbows fell to her thighs and she hunched over, crying. The overwhelming sense of relief spilled out of her like a broken dam.

Someone had found her letter. Someone had written her back. When Lucy had penned that letter, she'd never in a million years thought it would be discovered in her lifetime. She didn't need to calculate the odds to know that it was nearly impossible, that she would have to rely solely on herself to get out of this hellhole. And to hear that Aquarius cared about her was something that could barely compute. Good things didn't happen to her. Her mother had died, the spirit left behind for her hadn't respected her, her father had turned bitter, and she'd gotten kidnapped by some scumbag when she tried to turn things around for herself. Yet somehow, somehow, someone had found her letter in the very harbour she'd been taken away from.

Lucy let out a shaky chuckle in amusement. What a damn coincidence.

"Pun puun," said Plue as he patted her gently on the leg.

"You're right. I need to pull it together," she replied with a small smile, sniffling. "I've only got enough magic to keep your gate open for five more minutes."

She clicked the pen open and turned the piece of paper over to write a concise reply. Prioritizing what to write was a bit of a struggle while she was both maintaining Plue's gate and overcome with emotion, but she managed it—and with neater penmanship than the first letter, even. Processing could come later; it was a welcome change from the self-loathing.

When her response was done, Lucy wound the sheet back around the pen and clipped it the same way she'd received it. Plue was already reaching for the package before it was done.

As he held the pen tightly in both hands, Lucy crouched down and pat the spirit on the head. "Thanks for everything, Plue. I'll call you again as soon as I can."

The spirit was on a mission. He nodded at her with determination in his eyes, quickly chirping out his goodbye before he disappeared in a magical puff. Lucy sighed as she felt the pull on her magic settle. She leaned back on her hands and took a deep breath, exhaling as she let herself smile. The rumble of the washing machines kept her firmly in reality, but she didn't mind. Straightening only a second later, she began folding the clothes that were strewn around her.

After all, the laundry still had to be done.

"Oops—sorry. I didn't hurt you, did I?"

"It's fine."

Lucy chortled a bit at Kagura's response. Even the most stoic of them was prone to boredom, which was why the teen was allowing Lucy to pick out the split ends of her hair. Though she was generally fairly skilled at working with hair, Lucy had most certainly slipped a couple of times and accidently tugged Kagura's hair at the roots. Regardless, zero complaints came out of her mouth. It barely looked as if she had even felt it.

Kagura continued to sit perfectly still as Lucy worked at her hair. The whole thing was rather mundane, but it was a welcome alternative to Arisa's ramblings. It gave Kagura an excuse to meditate and Lucy an activity to concentrate on instead of wondering every five minutes if Natsu and Yukino had received her reply. Besides, Kagura had beautiful hair. They got to shower once each week and somehow her hair still looked like she was washing it every day.

Lucy was working on a particularly stubborn strand of hair when Arisa piped up. "What the hell's this?"

She squinted at the split end, sour that the thing wasn't cooperating with her. Kagura's hair really deserved better than this. Frayed ends had no place in that beautiful head of hair. Of course, there was no way to truly get rid of all the tattered ends without a trim.

"Lucy."

She paused at the sound of Kagura's voice this time, looking up from her work in confusion. The younger girl hadn't moved from her spot, but her eyes were trained directly in front of them were Arisa was standing on top of Lucy's mattress. Worse, she was holding Lucy's celestial key.

Several emotions immediately surfaced as she jumped to her feet, but the main one was panic. "Why are you poking around my mattress?" Lucy demanded, already on the borderline of hysterics.

"Please, I found it fair and square on the floor. I think the real question is why this was lying around near your bed in the first place," Arisa replied with a haughty look on her face. She turned the key over in her fingers a few times, looking at it with disinterest. "Not sure why you care so much either. It's a pretty dull accessory. Did you lift it from the dressing room?"

Lucy took a step forward, her shoulders raised in tension. She couldn't care less about what the other girl thought about magical key aesthetics, but there was no chance in hell that she was going to leave Nikora in those hands. Internally, she was cursing herself. What kind of person would so carelessly put away something so important to her? A stupid one. She was so stupid.

"Just give it back," she hissed.

Arisa hummed as she glanced around the room, feigning thought. "No, I don't think so."

"You just said you don't like it."

"I said it was dull, not that I didn't like it."

Lucy glared. Of course she was going to resort to semantics.

"Besides," Arisa started smugly, "now that I know you care so much about it, I think I'm going to keep it."

"You can't," Lucy said in a low voice. At this point, she was ready to use whatever energy she had on fighting her roommate. Her knees were bent and her fists were clenched with the desire to drive them into someone's face.

Arisa smirked. "What are you going to do about it?"

That was it; an open invitation to fight. Lucy sprang forward but found herself being lurched back by a set of hands on her shoulders. Her head whipped around to see Kagura holding on to her, a warning in her eyes.

"It's not worth it," she said, her hands tightening around Lucy's shoulders.

But it was worth it, and Lucy didn't know how to express this because literally the only thing on her mind was how she could kill Arisa with her bare hands for messing with her keys. Kagura simply couldn't understand how important that simple item was to her. Some girls would be broken by being stripped naked and tossed around by crew members, but Lucy knew she would break if she lost the spirit that had given her hope. Losing that key felt like losing everything.

Lucy stopped fighting Kagura's grip. She stilled, but the rage swirling inside her did not. "You can't have it."

"Finders keepers," Arisa replied.

She nearly lost it again, but Kagura moved in front of her, holding an arm out to block her instead. "Give her the key, Arisa."

Arisa's face turned sour. "You two are just a merry little band, aren't you? I knew Lucy had a stick up her ass, but I thought you might be less of a bitch."

"Give her the key," Kagura repeated firmly, giving no indication that she'd heard the insult.

"Hmm, nah."

Kagura's eyes narrowed and suddenly Arisa screamed. Lucy found herself blinking in disbelief as she saw the woman plummet to the ground, crumpling into a ridiculous position. She was on her knees with her arms outstretched forward and butt in the air while the Canis Minor key, which had fallen out of her hands in the process, rolled to a stop beside Lucy's mattress.

"Get your key," Kagura told her through clenched teeth. Sweat was starting to form on her brow and her hardened eyes were trained intensely on Arisa.

Lucy looked swiftly between both of her roommates, completely stunned. "You're—"

"Hurry."

She didn't need to be told a third time. Stepping out from behind Kagura's arm, Lucy swiftly retrieved her key while Arisa screamed nonstop. After Nikora was safely back in her possession, she returned to Kagura's side who was breathing heavily as her expression softened. Arisa scrambled off the floor and threw her back against the wall furthest from them.

"You're fucking crazy! You're some sort of magic freak!" Arisa shrieked uncontrollably. "Stay away from me, you crazy bitch!"

The screaming continued, but Lucy's attention was directed on the banging now coming from the other side of the door. "Hey! Shut the hell up! What's going on in there?" she heard one of the guards yell. He'd probably been on patrol when he heard them.

With the way Arisa was screeching, Lucy knew it was impossible that the guard would leave them alone. She tucked her key away into the waistband of her shorts and pulled her shirt down over it. The banging intensified and Lucy glanced over at the door again just as it burst open.

"What's happening in here?" the guard, Umino, Lucy thought his name was, demanded looking fairly aggravated.

Kagura, who had composed herself and had wordlessly stood there taking all the verbal abuse that came her way without a reaction of any kind, simply pointed at Arisa who was still in the throes of a major breakdown. Umino took one look at the manic girl and his face crinkled in anger.

"Hey! Shut your mouth right now!" he bellowed, running low on patience.

However, Arisa could not be deterred in her tirade. "—use your weirdo voodoo on me! A witch! You're a fucking witch! You should just kill yourself! You should—"

It was at that point that Umino stepped over to her and hauled her over his shoulder. He took her with him as he left the room, slamming the door behind him. Arisa's shrieks were audible for another good ten seconds until the room finally fell silent again. They both knew where she was headed: The Closet. It was a linen closet on the ship with its shelves torn out to house a person in hysterics. The crew would shut you in the cramped, dark space until you calmed down. Lucy knew the place well after having an anxiety attack when she'd first woken up on this ship. Now that she thought about it, it was one of the better places to be alone with your thoughts when it came to this hellhole. Arisa was lucky it was the only thing that would happen to her for flipping out like that.

And, of course, there was the reason for her flipping out in the front of Lucy's mind. She looked at Kagura who slunk back down onto her mattress in exhaustion. Lucy dropped to her roommate's level in pursuit of answers.

"You're a mage."

Kagura appeared unfazed by the statement. "As are you."

Settling herself next to Kagura, Lucy decided that there was finally one person on this ship that she might be able to trust. "I am. I'm a Celestial Spirit Mage. I can connect spirits to our world by opening a gate with their keys. What did you do to Arisa?"

For the first time, Kagura cracked a hint of a smile. "Gravitational magic. Before this whole ordeal, I was training to master swordsmanship. Gravity a is useful tool to have on your side." She paused when Lucy didn't respond right away, any traces of humour diminishing from her face. "I have to get off this ship, Lucy."

"So do I," Lucy said, "and I think I might have a way."

There was an unspoken pact that formed between the two. Kagura would watch her back and she would watch Kagura's. Everything was falling into place. Lucy told Kagura everything that happened since the night she'd almost been raped by Touya. She agreed to keep Kagura up to date on what was happening with her pen pals and both of them would keep Arisa from getting either of them in trouble.

By nightfall, Rei had returned to their room and any conversation between the allies ceased. Lucy lay awake on her mattress, staring at the ceiling. She'd made sure to put Nikora's key away securely this time and vowed to herself that she would never make the same mistake again. One day, she would look at a different ceiling that she knew wasn't part of a prison. One day, she'd wake up in a bed that she'd chosen as her own. Today, with someone on her side, at least she could fall asleep and be less afraid of what tomorrow would bring.

She closed her eyes and let sleep take her, pulling into a world where she was free. Lucy ran through a meadow, greener and more beautiful than she could describe as the grass tickled her ankles with every stride. When her legs finally started burning, she stopped, panting heavily. She looked to the vibrant sky and tasted freedom with every breath. Snow swirled in the air, but she only felt the warmth of the sun.