Fire, Blood and Stars

Chapter 23

Lucy woke up in a tower. She immediately noticed the chains binding her hands and feet to the wall. Of course, she tugged on them to see whether she could break out from them or not.

She could not.

She elbowed the wall experimentally. The wall cried out in pain, after revealing itself to be Jose.

Regaining his calm persona, Jose gave Lucy a fake smile. A warm, beautiful fake smile, but a fake smile nonetheless.

"Ah, Miss Heartfilia! It's a pleasure to finally meet you! Your father has been quite worried about you."

At the mention of her father, Lucy flinched. Her eyes widened in fear. If it had been a few weeks ago, her immediate reaction would have been to freeze up. Now, her reaction was to kick out, hard, where no man should ever have to be kicked.

No man can blame Jose for his reaction. He immediately covered his crotch with his hands and started screaming like a little girl. Then he kicked out, sending Lucy flying out of the Sky Prison.

The chains were tough enough to do their jobs remarkably well. However, one of the Ten Wizard Saints kicking out was enough to tear even the most battle-hardened chains. (Farewell, binding object that is also a bit kinky. You shall never be forgotten.)

Falling down from the tower, Lucy didn't scream. Regaining her bearings, she clawed at the wall, trying to get handholds. But the wall had been recently cleaned, and there were no handholds.

Remembering the dropping from sky exercise Natsu had shown her, she brought her arms close to her body and her legs to her chest. Coming into contact with the ground, she rolled. It hurt, but her bones stayed intact.

She was not in a good position to run, but a single memory of her father standing over her with a look of rage gave her enough motivation to get up on her feet and take off in a run.

While running, Natsu realized that he had never truly appreciated the distance from Hargeon to Magnolia. He had always used Bloodspeed, which Happy called (with good reason) the Bloody Rollercoaster. Worst part? Natsu knew Happy was cursing, but he couldn't call him out on it, since the process did use blood.

However, not having had any blood since Lucy had offered her own, he had just realized his immense hunger. Somehow, being with Lucy had dulled his need for blood. Also, it had to be considered that while cooked food tasted horrible, it did fill his stomach.

Hunger he could handle easily. The fatigue that came with it? That was also handleable, if a little difficult. The lack of magic was the worst. He couldn't travel faster than he could by running, which was quite fast, but not as fast as magic.

The lack of magic also reduced his combat abilities drastically. If Lucy was in danger from weaklings, he could handle them. But anyone with even Gray's level of strength, and the fight could easily go either way.

Closing his eyes, he tried to pinpoint Lucy's location. Now, he definitely knew that she wasn't in the guild hall. Either that, or every single person except her had gathered in a place that wasn't the guild hall. Considering that Nab somewhat lived next to the request board, it was probably the former.

Sadly, he was not well-versed in finding his mate's position. Sangy had said that it would come naturally, but then, he hadn't really left her side much after finding out, so he had very little experience.

He could tell, though, that she had an incredible amount of adrenaline in her veins at the moment. His blood curdled at the thought of what could have led to a fight-or-flight response.

The guild came in sight, but he paid no attention to it, not even noticing it was broken, heading past it in Lucy's general direction. After fifteen to twenty minutes, he felt her nearby. He also heard a voice he hadn't heard since childhood grumbling something to the effect, "That geezer sent me to find the target. Seriously? He got kicked in the nuts- Oh, hey, N-Natsu!"

"Gajeel?"

"U-uh, what are you doing here?" Fear was written across Gajeel's face.

"I'm looking for someone, I don't have time. Bye." Saying that, Natsu ran towards the area where he felt Lucy. He did not notice Gajeel hightailing it out of there like a spooked deer.

Natsu was incredibly hungry now. Smelling Gajeel's blood had done that. If he saw another living being-

He crashed into a warm body. His eyes noticed the blonde hair, and his nose noticed blood. Sweet, sweet blood. The girl's eyes widened at his hungry expression. "N-Natsu?"

His hunger took over and he bit at her neck, gulping down the blood that flowed.

It was heaven, for him as well as her. The adrenaline flowing through her body made her blood even sweeter. After three gulps, he regained his senses. Registering who he was, his face transformed into one of horror.

"Lucy? Oh gods! I'msosorryareyouokay-"

"What happened? How are you here? Where's Happy?"

Natsu fell silent in confusion. She was completely flooded with sweat and adrenaline, she had quite possibly had a panic attack the night before, and she was asking him where Happy was?

"Natsu?" she prompted.

"He's alright. He's catching up." A moment later, he frowned. "Was this Mirajane's idea?"

"No, it wasn't", said Lucy. Then she yawned and rested her head on his shoulder. "Can we go back?"

Natsu was too tired to lift her up, so he let her lean on him, holding her waist tightly. They started walking back together.

Gray wasn't that far behind Natsu. At that moment, he had just reached their guild hall, and had found that it was broken. Entering it and going down to the basement, he found the Master drinking beer. A lot of beer.

A lot of people were shouting and grumbling about how Master Makarov was refusing to take revenge. Hearing that, Gray made his way next to the master, and froze his barrel.

"Gimme back ma beer! Gimme!"

"Who did this, Gramps?"

Their Master did not reply. Wakaba answered.

"Phantom Lord did this to the guild, and master is preaching forgiveness."

Gray looked at Makarov with a shocked and hurt expression on his face.

"Master, I can understand forgiving them for destroying the guild hall, but what about Lucy?"

Makarov frowned. "Lucy hasn't come to the guild yet. She's still at home."

Levy gasped and put a hand over her mouth. Gray looked to her.

"Lu-chan, she- she sleeps in the guild!"

Master Makarov probably had a spell to sober up, because his eyes immediately grew thunderous.

"JOSE!"

Meanwhile, Gajeel was back at Phantom Lord, holding a plushie animal (Iago's Incredible Iguanas! Never let your iron dragon be scared again!) and shivering. Probably knowing that he couldn't force Gajeel to attack, Jose had enlisted Juvia's help to convince him. He had very intelligently thought that since Gajeel and Juvia had briefly dated in the past, she would be able to convince him.

He had not calculated that briefly dated in the past signified two things. Firstly, a mutual liking. Secondly, a breakup.

Juvia refused to talk to Gajeel. When Jose convinced her to try (read: forced), Gajeel refused to talk to her.

Almost pulling his hair out, Jose asked the rest of the Element Four to try and convince Gajeel. He looked on from a few meters away. The conversation seemed to be going well, at least, until Totomaru accidentally set Gajeel's iguana plushie on fire.

Jose rubbed his head to try and stop the incoming headache. He looked to their mechanic, a person who would have been completely generic if not for his bright fluorescent hair.

"Mobilize to Fairy Tail. We're going to get the target back."