ADL OLD CHAPTERS

17. No Pressure

Y/n grunted as she was thrown to the floor of one of many cells in the castle's dungeons. She crashed to the ground and rolled, stopping between Natsu and Wendy.

"Where are the others?" Natsu growled, grabbing onto the bars of the door. He glared deep into the eyes of the knight, who looked back at him with a smug smirk.

"Others?" he asked, tilting his head to the side, black and white hair falling into his face.

"Yeah!" Wendy cried as she pushed herself up onto her knees. "Where are our friends, Lucy Carla and Happy!?"

"Unfortunately we have no use for her," he lamented with a mocking pout. "So she's going to be executed,"

"If you so much as lay a finger on Lucy I swear you're gonna pay," y/n growled. She sat in the back of the cell, shrouded in shadows. But her eyes seemed to glow demonically as she glared.

"I'll burn you down to a pile of ashes!" Natsu snarled. His face pressed against the bars, grip so tight his knuckles turned white.

"Aren't you a scary pair?" The knight laughed with a condescending smirk. "Are all Earthland wizards as ferocious as you are?"

Y/n sneered at him before blocking his presence out completely. This wasn't her first time in a cell and it wouldn't be her last. Analytical e/c eyes scanned the area. It was longer than it was wide and high enough that the ceiling was masked in shadows. The floors, walls and presumably the roof were made of gray stone. They lay unevenly, some smooth, some rough, some dangerous. The bars were thin metal, iron maybe, and bent out of shape. A pair of handcuffs were attached to the wall opposite her, the rusted chains and floors stained with old blood.

Y/n's lips slowly curled up into a smirk. She had a plan, she just hoped it'd work.

***

Natsu growled, slamming his fist into the wall at another failed escape attempt. He turned his back to the door and scanned the cell. Wendy sat against the wall, her knees pressed into her chest. Her brown eyes stared at the ground, dazed and unseeing.

Y/n was sitting opposite to the blue-haired girl, not at all bothered by the stench of old blood radiating from the stones upon which she sat or the chains in her hands. Her eyes were focused as she fiddled with the rusted metal, soft clinks echoing through the dank dungeon air.

"What're you doing?" Natsu asked her, crossing his arms over his chest. He leaned against the stone wall, watching her work.

She didn't look up or falter and for a moment he thought she hadn't heard him. "Just fiddling, it helps with the nerves,"

He groaned and threw his head back in exasperation. "Aren't you supposed to be a super-assassin? How haven't you found us a way out?"

Y/n looked up at him and wordlessly raised the chains in her hands.

His eyes widened with a grin. "Oh, that's what-"

Y/n made a frantic gesture for quiet, nodding to the door. They couldn't be sure if they were alone. She patted the spot next to her which he took after a moment's hesitation.

"I have two plans," she started in a whisper, her e/c eyes intense as they bore into his. "One: make use of the mechanics either in the cuffs of the metal of the chain to pick the lock. Two: when they come to feed us, use the chain as a garotte,"

Natsu blinked at her.

She sighed. "Sneak up behind them and strangle them with it,"

He nodded eagerly, jumping suddenly as y/n reached up behind him to tear the second set of chains from the wall. She dropped it in his lap and fixed him with a serious stare.

"I'll need you for plan three which is to wrap the chains around the bars and try to pull them out,"

"Why isn't that plan one?" Natsu asked.

"Because I said so," she hissed. "Now if you want to be useful you can check for vents or try to whittle down one of the links,"

Then with that y/n picked up her sharp slab of stone and began to tinker once more.

***

Plans one, two, three and surprise plan number four had failed.

Y/n fought back as the knights entered the room, grabbing her companions and trying to grab her. Even without her weapons, which had been seized upon her capture, y/n was formidable. She used what she had, in this case, the chains and her fists, to her advantage. She managed to defeat a handful, but once she felt the familiar snap of a neck between her hands y/n was knocked to the floor.

A blow to the head with the butt of a sword left her dazed and allowed for the surviving members of the guard to drag her and her friends off. Y/n tried to keep track of the winding hallways but her vision was fading in and out. They must have hit her harder than she thought.

Blood dripped into her eyes as she was hooked up to a strange machine. She growled menacingly but the guards paid her no heed.

Her e/c eyes scanned the room. Natsu and Wendy were being attached to a machine much like her own. Wendy's eyes were welling with scared tears as silent sobs wracked her body. Her brown eyes turned concerned when she saw y/n who tried for a smile. The blue-haired girl didn't seem appeased. Y/n figured it was all the blood. Natsu, upon realizing y/n's state began to roar even louder. Curses and rage-fueled threats booming through the halls like thunder.

Y/n watched as a short, scrappy man stepped up to some sort of control panel.

Just what were they going to do to them?

***

Y/n blinked her eyes open at the feeling of being shake. She groaned. Her eyelids felt like lead.

"Y/n!" She squinted at the blurry figure above her.

"Gray?" she murmured, pushing herself up onto her forearms. The ice-make wizard nodded, looking down at her with a grin. "The hell are you doing here?"

"It's a long story," he said. "You need to take one of these,"

Y/n glanced between Gray and the object he'd placed in her hand, a small red ball of what she assumed to be medicine. Her shoulders dropped. What did she have to lose?

A loud crack echoed from beside her and she leapt to her feet, immediately on high-alert. She let her hands drop when her eyes landed on Natsu. Lucy hovered over him as he seethed, the ground dented somewhat beneath his fist.

"Are you okay?" Lucy asked him, concern evident in her tone.

"Yeah," he growled, his hand bursting into flames. "But we've got to hurry and stop them,"

"Stop who?"

Natsu didn't reply. He turned his head up to the ceiling of the chamber and let out a large breath of fire. Then he ran out of the room, leaving the others to sit, stunned in his wake.

"Wendy?" Carla's words brought Gray and Lucy rushing to the young girl's side. "Are you hurt?"

"Are you okay?" Lucy asked, kneeling at her side.

"No I'm fine," Wendy's voice was weak, cracking and wavering. "But the others are in trouble..."

Gray stepped forward, his hands curled into fists. "In trouble how?"

"The royal army is going to destroy Extalia by crashing the lacrima into it,"

They all turned to y/n who stood off to the side her eyes cast on the ground. They were completely dead. The ground at her feet started cracking as a dark aura built up around her. The Earthland wizards watched, speechless as y/n looked up. Her blank stare now murderous.

"If we don't stop them, Fairy Tail and all of Magnolia will perish,"

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