Chapter Fifteen

Just a few short hours later the group was awakened by the wizards coming for Juvia this time. She placed a hand against Gray's cheek and pressed a kiss to his lips.

"I'll be fine, my love," She whispered.

They took her away and thus ensued the wait for her to return. Despite how exhausted he was, and what he could hear, Natsu made sure to return the favor and tried to distract Gray as much as possible. Gray was handling about as well as Natsu had and was angrily pacing the cell. The only bright side was that he couldn't hear Juvia scream the way Natsu and Wendy could. After the amount of time they'd kept Natsu had passed, they were all curious. Natsu caught Lucy's eye when Gray wasn't looking and shook his head while pointing to his ear to signal that he could still hear Juvia. Another half hour passed and both Wendy and Natsu still had stress etched on their faces. When another half hour passed, Gray grabbed the bars of the cell and screamed until he was hoarse. Natsu reached out and grabbed Gray's shoulders and tried to comfort his friend as best he could. Lucy and Wendy joined in and rubbed an arm each.

"What the hell are they doing to her? Neither of you were gone this long," Gray's shaky voice asked. The anger was gone and now in its place was worry and fear. A tear trailed down his cheek and he wiped it away with a shaking hand.

Natsu and Wendy both looked up at that moment. Lucy caught Natsu's eyes and he nodded indicating he no longer heard Juvia anymore.

"We don't hear her anymore man," Natsu told his friend. They may fight regularly both with words and their fists, but as Natsu had said during the fight with Zeref they were friends. Brothers. And he hated seeing the pain his friend was in.

"They must be bringing her back," Wendy said.

"It's almost over," Lucy rubbed against his arm.

Sure enough, the red-headed wizard was carrying Juvia over his shoulder. This time he was accompanied by three other wizards and Taro himself. Natsu, Lucy and Wendy all backed up while Gray stood just inside the cell. The blond wizard opened the cell and the red-headed wizard dumped an unconscious Juvia into Gray's arms.

"Juvia!" Gray cupped her cheek as he knelt with her in his arms. He could feel her breathing, but she hadn't moved. "What the hell is wrong with you people?"

"I do apologize, but she was an incredibly fascinating subject indeed. Her body is made entirely of water. That deserved my full attention," Taro replied although he didn't look apologetic at all. "Tell me Gray. How does one make love to someone like her with a body made of water?"

The anger in Gray's eyes increased tenfold as did the eyes of every other Fairy Tail wizard in the cell.

"That is none of your fucking business you freak!" Gray yelled.

The blond wizard, who was standing behind Taro, was looking at his boss with disgust as were the other wizards making it clear they weren't on the same page as their boss. Taro held up his hands in defeat and gestured for his subordinates to head down the hall. After they'd turned the corner, Taro looked back at the Fairy Tail wizards in the cell and his gaze turned hard.

"Hear me when I say this. All of you. I can understand your anger as we take your mates from you, but know this. I have all the power here. I control what happens to them and to you," His eyes had narrowed as his voice shook with the same rage that Gray's had just moments before. "I could just as easily keep you separated from each other, but out of the goodness of my heart I let you all stay together. Do not test me."

With that threat he walked away leaving the Fairy Tail wizards watching his back. Natsu rolled his eyes at what was supposed to be a scary threat. Not only were Lucy's spirits already working on a way out, but they weren't exactly helpless without their magic. They'd all trained in hand-to-hand combat and had the physically strongest in the guild here. This nut case wasn't fooling anyone with that so called threat. Gray stood with Juvia in his arms and placed her gently on their cot. He knelt in front of it by her head and rubbed one hand against her side with the other rested against her head with his thumb rubbing against her forehead.

"Come on baby," He whispered to her. "Wake up."

Wendy furiously wiped a tear that had slid down her cheek away. "I feel so useless. If I only had my magic she'd be fine."

"Don't blame yourself Wendy," Lucy draped an arm across her friends' shoulder. "It's not your fault."

Juvia didn't end up waking for another few hours and by that point they'd already come to collect Gray. For the first time the wizards had to come into the cell to get Gray out which gave Elfman and Laxus an opening to use their brute strength. Unfortunately, their opportunity quickly faded when reinforcements surprised them all and pulled out swords and held them to Mira and Evergreen's necks. Both women looked pissed to have been used in that way, but without magic brute strength did not compare to a sword.

And so it went. They'd come twice a day to take one of them to drain their magic. After Taro's threat the time in between when they'd take one of them had shortened and they weren't allowed much time to be with their mate to help them recover. They had no concept of time in the dingy cell and their only way of knowing how long they'd been gone was from Loke's infrequent visits to update them on Virgo's progress. According to him they'd been gone a little over a week.

"Virgo's almost done with the tunnel so be ready," Loke said from outside the cell. The guards had just come to take Romeo who was the last of them. The whole group was on edge both from exhaustion and stress over the uncertainty of if they'd have their magic drained again. "There's more than just Taro and those four wizards here so once we get you out of this cell be prepared to fight your way out of here. It's a maze in here and we're doing our best to figure it out without being seen."

"Have you had any luck figuring out where exactly we are?" Laxus asked.

"Yea and this is where it gets both odd and complicated," Loke said. "You're not in Fiore anymore."

"What?" Lucy asked from her seat on a cot next to Wendy. She had her arm around her trying to provide some type of comfort to her friend as her boyfriend was tortured. Natsu sat on Wendy's other side with the young woman's head on his shoulder.

"Where the hell are we then?" Natsu asked.

"You're still in Ishgar, but from what we can tell you're in a small country called Isvan," Loke explained.

"I've never even heard of that," Mira replied in disbelief. She glanced up to Laxus who shrugged his shoulders in reply.

"That's the problem," Loke said with slumped shoulders. "No one really knows exactly where on the map it is other than that it's east of Fiore. So you might be traveling a while after we get out of here."

"As long as we're safe from this lunatic I don't care how far we have to go," Gray grumbled. He had Juvia resting in his lap and was stroking her back. For the most part the rest of them, other than Wendy who was only recently drained, had recovered from the magic drain. Juvia on the other hand still seemed to be having issues with regaining her full strength. Taro had kept her for an extremely long time and it was showing in her slow road to recovery. Gray hardly let her leave his side and only ever to use the bathroom that was in the corner of the cell. Even then he hovered nearby.

The others all nodded in agreement and Loke bid them farewell advising it should only be another day or two before Virgo was done. Thankfully after he left, Wendy drifted to sleep on Natsu's shoulder and was saved from hearing Romeo's screams. Natsu felt for the kid. Getting your magic drained by Taro's crazy machine was not a good feeling.

"Damn," Lucy muttered. Her brow was creased in thought as she watched Wendy. She glanced up at Natsu who raised his eyebrows in question. "Our timing might just be off a bit is all. If Virgo's almost done and we escape, Wendy may not be strong enough to cast Troia on all you guys if we have to go on a boat or train or something."

"We'll survive Luce," Natsu replied, glancing up to Laxus who also nodded his agreement. "A couple days of motion sickness to let her get her full strength back is no big deal. I'd rather she feel better first."

"I heard she and Porlyusica are working together to create a potion to help with both regular motion sickness and motion sickness that's specific to Dragon Slayers," Evergreen said as she smiled at the sleeping young woman. Evergreen was currently sitting on Elfman's massive thigh sideways with her arm wrapped around his neck while his arm circled her tiny waist.

"She's sure come a long way hasn't she?" Bisca replied with a smile from her place next to Alzack on their bed.

Lucy smiled remembering the small girl who'd tripped her way into the meeting for the alliance to take down the Oracion Seis. This was most definitely not the same person and she didn't know if their guild would've survived without her. She helped Natsu gently lay Wendy on her cot and then covered her with the blanket. They all decided to rest as well and settled on their respective cots. Once Romeo was returned it was likely that they wouldn't have much time before Virgo was completed with her tunnel and their attempt to escape would begin.