Taken

Natsu Dragneel was running.
He was running blindly, only having his nose as a guide. He didn't know where his nose was leading him. Only that he had to follow the sweet scent of ink and vanilla. His legs were aching. His lungs gasping for air. His heart racing almost as fast as his feet were. He was losing his mind with worry. Insanity was trying to enter.
Natsu wouldn't let it.
His tired body was howling at him to stop. To take a break. But, he wouldn't, couldn't stop. No matter how much he was pushing himself to exhaustion.
Natsu would never stop running.

Because it was all his fault.

~Before~

"That was so boring!"
"Natsu, you set fire to four buildings! Not to mention the forest nearby." His partner deadpanned, a tick mark appearing on her forehead, a sign of her growing irritation. The Dragon Slayer beside her sighed loudly. "I didn't mean too!" He defended himself for what felt like the hundredth time. It wasn't his fault that the dumbass Dark Wizard kept moving around, making Natsu's fire Magic shoot off course, and hit things that were definitely not his target.

A frown pulled down his lips, leaving him pouting, as he crossed his arms over his chest. "It's all that bastards fault anyways!"
The blond girl couldn't help but let out an amused huff as she rolled her chocolate eyes skyward. "Try telling that to, Master, when we get home."

Natsu's face paled as he sweatdropped. He was so not looking forward to that confrontation. What would Erza do to him when she found out?! "Great..." The Dragon Slayer moaned, hanging his head as he trudged on. The blond Mage chuckled at him as the aura around him darkened considerately. Taking pity on him, his partner, leaned over and patted his shoulder. "You'll be-" The Stellar Mage never got to finish her sentence.

Magic, that burned, flew past her face, leaving a thin scratched that sizzled her skin like the sun. Her hand flew toward her pale cheek, a gasp of pain leaving her. The Magic was eating away at her skin.
Acid.
It was Acid Magic.

"Lucy!" Her best friend yelled to her as he reached out his own hand to help her. "No!" Lucy Heartfilia snapped at him, slashing her free hand in the air to ward him off. "Don't touch the Magic!" She warned him, wincing as the Acid that had made contact with her fingers also began to eat away at the skin on her digits as well. While Lucy tried to stop the Acid induced Magic from causing more damage, Natsu searched for the person who was responsible for hurting his partner.

The bushes to his left shook slightly, causes a small ripple to come from it, and dislodge a few leaves. His sharp eyes zeroed in on it.
Gotcha.
Natsu took in a large amount of air, feeling his lungs, and fire with it. He braced himself, tilted back his head, and released a roar of white hot flames. Shouting, "Roar of the Fire Dragon!," as he did so. There was a scream of agony before a man that was doused in Natsu's flames came running out of his lame hideout.

The Fire Mage was on him in a second. Fists that were inflamed wailed on the man without mercy. Burning and reducing skin to blackened bits. With a growl filled with anger, Natsu cocked back his arm, ignited his elbow, and drove it into the man's throat. In seconds the fight was finished.
It barely made him fired up.

However, when he turned around to check on Lucy, his body nearly burst into flames. Men that had melted into the clearing like shadows with no scents were surrounding the Celestial Spirt Mage. Trapping her in. Keeping her away from him.
Natsu didn't like that now.

With a huff he sprinted toward them, his arms, legs, and fists already set aflame. He opened his mouth, steam was already pouring out, as he got ready to roast them with a Dragon's Roar.
Only he never got the chance to.
The cloaked men were standing in a circle, with Lucy in the middle, and they all had their hands locked around one another's. Their heads were bent forward, their eyes closed, as they chanted something that Natsu's keen hearing was deaf to.

The boy's obsidian eyes widened when a sharp, piercing green light exploding around the men and Lucy. Natsu had no choice but to shield his eyes, least he wanted to go blind. He had no idea what that light would do to him or to his best friend. But, whatever it was, he would not run. For he would not leave her behind. They were just going to have to face it together.
Like we always do, Luce.

"Natsu!" His muscles tensed and his eyes fluttered at the cry of his name.
"Lucy!" He shouted back, hoping that she could hear him over the loud hum that was brought by the sickly green light full of Magic. The light was burning his eyes, even though he shielded them with his arm, the light still found a way in.
Then, it was gone.
Along with the men, the chanting, the hum of Magic...and Lucy.
Natsu lowered his shaking arm from where it shielded his face.
His partner...gone?
His eyes scanned the chard earth where she had been standing not even moments before.
His Lucy...gone?

He refused to accept that. His feet that felt much to heavy guided him to the scorched ground. He fell to his knees where Lucy once stood. His sharp eyes roamed the ground. Searching for a clue. Searching for a sign.
Searching for anything.
I'll take anything. Natsu thought desperately as his fingers clawed at the dirt. How he wished at this moment that he had brought, Happy, with them. His little Exceed could have made it to Lucy before she had vanished. He could have flown back to the Guild to get help. Happy could have done something.

The little cat would have been more of use then Natsu was at that moment.

"Dammit!" The anger that boiled his blood released from him in a jet of flames. His fists came down hard on the ground, leaving a crack in the earth, and making a plume of dust rise in the air around his crouched form.
In the puff of dust that made his nose hurt, he caught it. It was faint but there. Vanilla and ink.
He knew the scent well.
"Luce..."
Don't ever underestimate a Dragon's nose...

~Now~

Natsu Dragneel had been running for what seemed like years. He hadn't stopped since she had been taken from him. If he was correct, the sun had risen and gone down three times already. Three long days had already past and gone. Natsu was weary and brittle. It seemed like a gust of wind would knock him down any second.
He kept on running.

One thing was on his mind. Repeating on and on again. Get to, Lucy.
She must be waiting for him. Wondering where her partner was.
Wondering when her friend would come to save her.
Wondering and waiting.
Natsu prayed to Mavis that she was safe and not harmed in any way. If she was, if those cloaked bastards had done anything to hurt her, he would be leaving behind nothing but ash.

Sometimes the Fire Dragon Slayer would lose himself to panic.
Doubt would fill him and eat at his already frantic mind.
What if he would never find her?
Sometimes he would lose her scent, only to pick it up again in a few minutes. Minutes spent wasted.
What if she blamed him?
It was all his fault after all. Once again he had been to reckless. To consumed within himself and his fight to notice any other dangers lurking around.
What if she hated him for it?
The thought almost made him fall.
Hated me? If she did, he would have to live with it. He would endure it all, just as long as she was safe.
Nothing else mattered.
Not even his own feelings.

The swift movements of his feet made him look like a blur of nothing but a fuzzy image as he whipped by. Faintly, he noticed that he was in a town that he had never been in before. The scents that wafted from the town and into his nose, he did not recognize. The town's people that he rushed past looked like death walking. Even from his quick glances, Natsu could tell that these people were waiting for Death to take them. The small town itself was a wreck. Buildings that he flew past were just waiting for the slightest breeze to come and make them all tumble down.

Up above the sky was an upsetting shade of grey. Swirls of menacing looking clouds hung lazily among the sky. They looked heavy with rain. But, as Natsu eyed the miserable looking plants that he zoomed by, they looked like they hadn't seen water in decades.
This town was dying.
And Lucy's scent was stopping here.
She was in this town that was fading fast. Now, the Fire Mage just had to find her, and take her away.

Her scent was so faded now that he could no longer follow it. Instead, he relied on his ears. He took a breath before closing his eyes and giving in to his other sense. It was a small town, he could hear everything.
His eyes picked up pointless chatter, the shuffling of feet, the crack of distant thunder, a dog rooting around trash, and the sound of the chanting of words that he could not understand.
Found ya.

Natsu tore off in the direction of where the chanting was originating from. He took a hard right and he found himself staring at a brick wall.
A dead end?
A dead end!
"What the hell!" He seethed, his hands forming fists as he paced. He glared at the wall, wishing it would go up in flames. It didn't make any sense! He could hear the chanting, it was coming from straight ahead!
So why couldn't he see it.

His lips curled back from his canines as he released a low snarl before punching the red bricked wall. Instead of feeling his knuckles blast through the bricks, his whole body flew through, leaving the bricks untouched. With a grunt Natsu landed in an ungraceful heap on the cold, tiled floor. He rubbed at the side of his thrumming head as he turned his head back to look at the wall. The wall that he had fallen through.

"Damn these people and all their Magic tricks and..." His cursed words broke off as he straightened himself and rose from the floor. His tired bones ached and protested at him for getting up. All he wanted to do was keep sitting there and rest. He forced himself to keep going.
Lucy needed him after all.

He slipped quietly into the shadows. Wrapping his worn scarf around his face so only his eyes could be seen, Nin Nin style. He brought up his hands and laced them together in the correct position. Natsu held them close to his chest as he moved, keeping his back to the wall, and making sure his ears were open and alert to any noise.

It seemed he had ending up in some sort of Guild. If he could call it that. Like the rest of the town's buildings, this one was no exception. The old floorboards groaned with each light step he took. All the lights were broken, casting everything in shadow, but it didn't bother him. The Fairy Tail Mage's enhanced vision easily allowed him to see past the darkness.

As he continued to sneak his way through the halls, the chanting grew louder and louder. Until he saw the same green light from before. The gross coloring of the light was coming from underneath a thick looking oak door. Natsu cracked his knuckles.
I'm all fired up now, Nin Nin!
With a quick punch to the door with his flaming fist, the door fell forward with a loud boom!

Shocked eyes fell upon him as he grinned, taking a step into the room filled with the same weirdly dressed men. "Yo!" Natsu greeted them cheerfully, a dark look flashing in his even darker eyes.
"You took my partner from me."
His tone had completely lost its lightheartedness as had his whole demeanor. Only anger and a sense of foreboding came from him now.
"I want her back."

His words were anything but calm, they were spoken softly, an undertone of an ominous threat coating the words.
Natsu was an army by himself.
And he had just brought the war.

The men only had time for their wits to flow back into them before all hell in the form of a pissed off pink haired Dragon came charging at them. With only a few 'Fire Dragon's Roars' and some 'Fire Dragon's Crushing Fangs', Natsu had left a pile of smoking people moaning and groaning in his awake. The Fire Dragon Slayer crossed his arms across his chest as he looked around the room.

Candles had been lit, casting horror like shadows across the cold room, and their walls. Ruins that reminded him of what Freed drew decorated the walls all around in dripping red liquid.
He didn't have to smell it to know what it was. Blood.
The thing that really stood out to him was the stone table that was in the center of the room. Strange carvings and pictures were scattered all over the stone. Shackles hung off the ends of the table on four sides. One set for the arms and one set for the legs. Automatically, Natsu's hand went up to clutch at his scarf.
They were planning on sacrificing...Lucy?

Already a fire was burning in his belly at the thought of his partner's body shackled to that table, waiting to be sacrificed. With a snarl he raised his leg and slammed the heel of his foot into the middle of the sacrificial table. With a loud cracking sound the offensive stone table fell with a crash that shook the whole building. With a satisfied smirk, the young man pivoted on his heels, and stalked out of the room.
"Now to find, Lucy."

Natsu announced as he started to jog down the never ending hallways. He tasted the air for any sign of Lucy, but came up empty. The only thing that he could detect was the smell of charred flesh-which was his doing- and the scent of old Magic. Not to mention the dust that was hurting his nose. He pressed his scarf closer to his nose, inhaling the still lingering smell of Dragon, and brimstone.
The smell calmed him, like it always did.

"Lucy...?" He whispered as he scooted along the walls, stopping once and a while to look back and forth, before moving along. He had been in this damned building for a little more then a hour. It was really starting to irritate him. "Lu-" a yelp tore free from him as a burning sensation started on his arm. He jerked back just in time to escape from the Magic that was fired at him. It whipped past his cheek to hit the wall a few inches from him.

Natsu's onyx eyes widened when the purple substance began to eat away the bricks in a hiss of steam. His eyes flew towards the direction in which the Magic had come from. A whoosh of air left him as he quickly leaped to the side, barely missing the tirade of the same purple gunk that came at him. Natsu rolled until he came back up onto his haunches, fire already pooling in his stomach, ready to be released.

He tilted his head in the direction of the Acid using Mage and roared. White hot flames shot out of his fanged mouth and into the darkness. The Mage waited. His ears high on alert. Only, he didn't hear the scream that he would usually hear.
Aw, shit. I missed. A howl of pain came from him as a slather of Acid splashed on his back, eating away at the flesh and clothes there.

Natsu leaped to his feet just in time to let his fist fly. A smirk of triumphant lit up his face when he felt his fist crack against the person's cheek. The sound of bone breaking rang like a song in his ears. The howl of pain following the break was even better. A curse rose up as an onslaught of purple liquid that hurt like hell rained down on him.

He scrambled away from the killer Magic at top speed. The Fairy Tail Mage raced for the far wall. A plan forming in his mind. His Magic was running low. He hadn't eaten in days and it was taking its toll. Natsu only had one shot at this. If his trajectory was correct then if he launched himself off the wall then he would hit his target and efficiently knock his ass out.

"Hehehe." A breathless laugh was all the warning the Dark Mage got before Natsu put his plan in motion. Putting enough speed into his legs, he ran up the wall, using the bricks as footholds, before launching himself into the air with a powerful kick. His scarf whipped around his face, hiding his smile from view, but the Dark Wizard knew it was there. The boy flipped in the air, his back facing the man, before completely flipping in the air.

"Fire Dragon's," Natsu Dragneel roared, his feet bursting into flames as he slashed through the air between him and his enemy. "Claw!" His leg came crashing down with enough force to embolism his target. With a crack! his flaming foot caught the man in his back. With a thump his battle with the Acid Mage was finished. Natsu was the winner.

With a hoot of joyous laughter he pumped his still fiery fist in the air. Only to cringe in pain and slump up against the wall nearest to him. His wounds flared to life, the Acid had made quick work on him, and Natsu was paying the price. Gotta get to...Wendy, soon. He clenched his teeth together and braced himself. Using the wall as a support he slowly made his way down the hallway once again.
Only to stop when something glittering gold flashed in his eyes.

Natsu turned his attention towards the glint and a grin formed on his bruised face. Lucy's keys. They were all laying in a golden and sliver heap on the dirty floor next to the unconscious, cloaked man. He limped over to them, favoring his right leg that had been burned by the Acid Magic, and stooped down to snatch them up. The clicking of the keys seemed to thank him for saving them.
"Let's get ya all back to, Lucy, eh?" He said to them as he looped them through his belt. He limped back over to the wall and pressed up against it. Then, he began to shuffle along.
He would find, Lucy.
He was sure of it.
****
"This is impossible!" The pink haired boy seethed to himself. This was grating on his nerves! He could not only find his partner in this maze of a Guild! He also couldn't find the damned exit! "Arrrrggghhhh!" He snarled as he lashed out and slammed his fist straight through the old bricks. Causing the whole Guild to shake and for dust and grit to rain down around him.

Lucy's keys clinked together rhythmically where they were tied to his belt. His calloused fingers brushed against the smooth gold of one key, bringing him a sense of comfort. The heady smell of copper and vanilla that wafted up from the keys was also a pleasant sort of comfort to him. It almost let the Fire Mage think that his best friend was safe and by his side.
It almost did.

Natsu suddenly stopped. One foot was already half way raised in the air when he stopped abruptly. His keen hearing had picked up something. He was sure of it. Come on...say it again. Natsu thought with growing hope. Come on...

There!
It had been a small sound. But he had heard it. The sound of crying. He took off as fast as he could. Limping around a corner and then another. The sound drawing closer and closer. Until he could smell the saltiness of fresh tears. Damn, she's crying again.
Natsu always said how much he hated to see her cry. He would just have to stop her tears. And then, he finally, finally, came across a large cell door.

If Natsu could, he would have already set fire to the door, and then smashed it open with a good flaming kick. Alas, he was out of using big flames, and he was already hurt to much to do anything flashy. So, he would have to settle for the more boring way, melting the lock on the door. He gripped the cold metal lock in his burned hand, and willed what little fire he had left to enter his palm.

In only a few moments, the lock had been burned through, and the Dragon Slayer was swinging the creaking cell door open. He took a step inside the cell and murmured, "Lucy?"
Only for a hard blow to hit him in the back of the head and send him tumbling into darkness.
*
*
*
*
N...su...
...N...t...u
"Na-su! Natsu!"
Natsu Dragneel was being shaken. His head lolled to the side as a wave of motion sickness hit him. Only for it to pass when he released a moan of pain, effectively stopping the devil of a person from shaking him. Who the hell was shaking him anyway!? Freaken rude, Natsu's jumbled mind thought.

"Natsu?! Oh my Mavis, are you alright?" He knew that voice. Sweet and soft and full of concern. Ah, that's the weirdo's voice. Even though the back of his skull was thumping in time with his heart, and the back of his eyes were aching, a smile came to his face, revealing his fangs. "Yo...Luce." Natsu mumbled as he cracked open his dizzy eyes. "How're ya been...?"

Only, he never got an answer. Slim arms were thrown around him as his partner threw her arms around him. Almost choking the poor Dragon Slayer, but Natsu didn't care. Just as long as Lucy was safe and sound, he would always be alright. Lucy pulled back and Natsu could finally lay his eyes on her.

His eyes roamed over her pale face, taking in the small bruises, and the little charred skin that the Acid had left on her cheek. Other then a few little bumps and bruises, Lucy Heartfilia was alright.
That still didn't stop her partner from asking though. "Natsu, I'm more worried about you." She told him, her tone overflowing with concern for her Dragon.

Deep burns and cuts had marred his arms, legs, chest, face, and back. Lucy had bandaged and dressed the wounds the best to her abilities. But she still wasn't a match for Wendy, she needed to get Natsu back to the little Dragon Slayer very soon.
A flash of regret shot through her. All these wounds he had suffered through, all just to get her back. She would make sure that it wouldn't ever happen again.
She hated to see him hurt after all.

As of right now, they were in a hotel room a town over. Lucy had explained to the confused Fire Mage that after Lucy had accidentally hit him over the head with a plate-
"You did what?!"
"I'm so sorry!"
"I come to save you and what the hell do you do?! You attack me?!"
"I'm sorry, Natsu! I thought you were one of those Dark Mages!"
Natsu continued to pout and rub at the bandaged that Lucy had wrapped around his head, as she continued with her story.

After she had...done that to him, she had summoned Loke, when she saw that Natsu had found her keys. After Loke had come in a flash of golden light, he picked up the unconscious Dragon Slayer, and had carried him out of the Dark Guild along with Lucy. Then they had both started to walk in the direction of the next town over. Like hell anyone of them was staying in the town again.

"But why did they take you?" Natsu asked her, scarfing down the food that Lucy had ordered for him earlier. She watched him eat silently for a moment. How long since you have eaten, Natsu? The girl sighed, playing with her keys as she told him. She started off with the most obvious reasons. The town was dying and so were the people. In order for the town to get better, the cloaked Mages had taken her, and her keys, so they could make the town whole again. They were going to sacrifice her on the stone table as they held her keys out, and chanting a spell.

It had been the only way for them to bring their home back to life.
By using the purest of Magics.
Celestial Spirt Magic.

"Huh," Natsu grumbled, stuffing a chicken leg that he had set fire to in his mouth. "I'm just glad you're okay, Luce." He shot a fanged tooth grin at her. "That's all that matters."
The way his dark eyes shined with such a warming fire made her heart stop its rhythmic beating.
Thanks to you, Natsu, I am alive.
That made saying these next few words all the more easier. They had been at the back of her mind for such a long while now. Always there, whispering, and waiting to be spoken aloud.

Now was their chance for their wish to be fulfilled.

"...Natsu?"
His onyx eyes locked on her.
"Hmm?"
Her chocolate eyes fixed on him with an unwavering gaze.
"I..."
Lucy murmured with the softest of voices.
"I love you so."
Those words brought happiness to her.
His sunshine smile and the green sheen that appeared in his eyes showed his joy from her words brought Lucy her salvation.

~The End~

"Love you too, Luce."