Lucy's POV

The last time I had felt this useless was in the magic games when Minerva had taken away my celestial spirits in the floating pool of water and had mercilessly beaten me as she laughed. No one was beating me now, but the goo that had trapped my fingers inches away from my keys had hardened until it felt like I was encased in stone. I wanted to scream at the woman who was giving Phaedra a triumphant smirk but the hardened goo was pressed tightly against my mouth and I couldn't even part my lips.

The woman in the black cape turned to look at me and I would have shuddered if my body could move. She looked me up and down through the translucent goo and I wasn't sure if I had ever felt more violated without anyone laying a finger on me before.

"Oh, you were well worth the trouble, young miss," the woman said with a wolfish smile and I glared angrily at her. She laughed mockingly at me before reaching into her cape and pulling out a small red crystal.

I watched in confusion as she passed her hand over the crystal and a small light appeared in its center, pulsing lightly. The light pulsed only for a few seconds before a familiar fizzing sound caught my attention. My head was stuck fast in the position it was in so I had to wait for the new arrival to walk over to stand beside the woman before I could see who it was.

My skin crawled as a small squeaking sound came from behind me. Looking as far to my peripheral as I could, I saw an intimidating man with salt and pepper hair and a well-trimmed beard walk into my line of vision. He was dragging his hand around the hardened goo layer that had me trapped but it was almost as if he were caressing my buttocks as he slowly wound his way around me.

Grunts of outrage sounded from beside me and I looked over to see Phaedra glaring literal daggers towards the man. Even through the goo, I could see her neck muscles straining as she tried desperately to move towards me. I wanted to tell her that we would be okay, but the man's attention was diverted from me to Phaedra and he dropped his hand to walk over towards her, cutting off my view of her face.

"The blonde is an excellent specimen, Dierdre, but this one is a little wiry, don't you think?" the man asked in a quiet voice. The woman, Dierdre, pointed to Phaedra and I could hear the excitement in her voice.

"I think we may have found her, boss! She used a form of light magic that I've never seen before, and didn't you say that she would probably hide her skin?" Dierdre asked. I felt my brow furrow in confusion at that comment but before I could puzzle through it the man had responded.

"Let's not get our hopes up. We've already got a dozen light mages who fit the description," the man said, seemingly unconvinced.

"We should probably go, boss. One of their little friends got away," Dierdre said. A small whimper of surprise bubbled up my throat as the man suddenly pulled back his arm and gave the woman a swift, backhanded slap that sent her crashing to the ground.

"I said no witnesses," he growled in a dangerous voice, glaring down as the woman scrambled to her knees and bent her head over the man's feet.

"It won't happen again, boss," she said in a shaky voice. The man glared down at her before placing a hand on Phaedra's and my shoulders.

A strange pulling sensation surrounded me and in the blink of an eye, we were no longer in a darkening alleyway. Instead, I found myself in a cave looking out on dozens of women curled up on the ground, some crying and others just staring blankly into space. Several men and women in black capes wandered around them, kicking a few out of their way while others spat cruelly at them. My vision blurred as tears of fury threatened to fall, but I blinked rapidly to force them back and looked over at the man and woman who had captured us. 

"Take care of their possessions and then bring the light mage to me. We'll see if she really is the one we've been looking for," the man with salt and pepper hair said while placing his booted foot on Dierdre's shoulder and shoving her cruelly to the side. She scrambled to the side to let her boss through but he didn't move away immediately. Instead, he turned to look at me and I wanted to kick him where the lights don't shine when his eyes moved to my chest and stayed there.

"Make sure that those are real too, won't you? No point in selling defective wares," the man said with a cold smile before he swept past us. I glared after the jerk as he walked past all of the poor women and went through a wooden door at the end of the tunnel before disappearing from view.

My eyes flicked back to Dierdre as she slowly walked up to me. A small trickle of blood was dripping from her cut and swollen bottom lip but she still gave me that wolfish grin that made my skin crawl. I watched helplessly as she reached a hand towards my waist and I was surprised when the goo around that area began to evaporate. She reached down and removed my key holder and whip from my belt with a grin.

"These should fetch a nice price," she said with a grin.

With a casual flick of her hands, she turned towards the wall of the tunnel where she deposited my keys but I saw her strap my whip to her own belt. The goo that held me captive began to evaporate more and looking over I could see that the same thing was happening to Phaedra. After a few seconds, only a circular orb of goo was left holding my hands together and another was left around my feet. I wobbled crazily for a second as I tried to balance on the orb around my feet but I soon lost the battle and toppled to the ground with a painful crash.

My back and bottom hurt like crazy, but I pushed myself into a seated position to find that Dierdre was making her way over to me with that disturbingly wolfish grin. I tried to scoot back, but it proved more difficult than I had hoped with my hands encased in an orb in front of me and the ground being so uneven.

"Well then, shall we start with testing the goods?" Dierdre asked mockingly. I brought my knees in front of my chest protectively and was just about to spit in the woman's eye when suddenly a bluish-gray orb smashed into the side of Dierdre's face. My newly freed mouth dropped open in shock as Phaedra fell to the ground from the momentum of her punch but instead of stopping, she used the momentum to bring her legs up and smash the orb around her feet into Dierdre's stomach, sending her rolling across the ground with a loud yelp of pain.

"Phaedra!" I breathed out under my breath, gratitude causing my eyes to water. I watched as she awkwardly bent her knees and elbows and then pushed herself over so she was in a crawling position. I watched in amazement as she levered herself with the orb around her hands and eventually pushed herself into a standing position. She wobbled around but spread her elbows out and brought her encased hands up against her stomach and slowly gained her balance.

"Don't you dare touch her," she growled with more malice in her voice than I had ever heard before.

Dierdre pushed herself up, her right eye swelling and turning black and blue as I watched. She growled angrily but before she could say anything a loud banging sound echoed through the tunnel and what looked like bullets made of fire slammed into Phaedra's side. She grunted loudly and was tossed to the side where she fell onto the ground and didn't move.

"Phaedra!" I cried out, desperately trying to move towards her. I didn't know what I could do, but I knew that if I ever got out of this I was going to start practicing martial arts. I hated feeling helpless!

"What's going on?" one of the men who had been terrorizing the women in the tunnel asked, walking over and helping Dierdre to her feet. She growled angrily and loosened the whip she had taken from me from her belt as she came over towards me with a wicked glint in her eyes.

"Don't touch you, did she say? I wonder what she meant by that? Like this?" Dierdre raised the whip as she slowly walked over to me and I closed my eyes, telling myself that no matter what I wasn't going to let myself cry out in pain. I flinched at the snapping sound of the whip being let loose, but then my eyes flew open as a grunt of pain that was not my own sounded in front of me.

Somehow Phaedra had found her way in front of me. She was on her knees and the whip that had been intended for me was wrapped around her forearms. I gasped in shock as Phaedra jerked her arms back, pulling the whip out of the equally shocked Dierdre's hand.

"Do what you want with me, but leave these women alone. Let them go," Phaedra said with steel in her voice. Even though her voice was intimidating as heck, she was panting deeply and as she glanced briefly back at me I saw a stream of blood flowing from above her left temple and down the side of her face.

The man who had helped Dierdre held his hand out and the fiery bullets from before shot towards Phaedra. She was tossed up and over me from the strength of the attack and I turned around, rolling as best I could over to her shaking form. Phaedra's breathing was labored and there were several gashes in her leather jacket, but I was surprised when she opened her eyes and looked at me with tears swimming in their icy blue depths.

"I'm so sorry, Lucy," she whispered hoarsely.

"Don't be. Natsu and the others are going to find us. It's going to be okay," I said, my voice trembling as I desperately hoped that they would find us soon. A beefy hand reached down and looped around the orb trapping Phaedra's hand. She whimpered as Dierdre's helper lifted her roughly by the orb and dangled her a few inches off the ground.

"What should we do with this one?" he asked with disgust.

"We need to take her to the boss to check if she's what he's been looking for," Dierdre said with fury evident in her tone. I rolled over to watch helplessly as the man tossed Phaedra over her shoulder. She weakly batted the orb around her hands against the man's back, but it was obvious her strength had reached its limit and I felt awful that she had used up the last of her power while trying to help me.

"I'll be back for you, pretty. Just you wait," Dierdre said with a crazed look in her eyes before she turned and followed the man towards the door at the end of the tunnel.

"I'm sorry, Lucy. So sorry," Phaedra called after me and I felt answering tears echoing hers as I watched them take her away.

"Natsu," I cried out in anguish as I watched them take away Phaedra. "Natsu, please help."

"Lucy-san?" The door closed, cutting off my view of Phaedra, and I turned my tear-stained face towards the familiar voice. Yukino, her blue dress ripped and dirty, crawled towards me with orbs of her own surrounding her feet and hands. Taking as deep a breath as my lungs would allow I moved onto my elbows and knees and awkwardly shuffled towards her as well.

"Yukino! Are you okay?" I asked, not bothering to stop my tears.

"Not really," Yukino admitted as she looked towards the door where Dierdre and Phaedra had just disappeared. "These people are human traffickers. They steal women to sell in other kingdoms that still practice slavery. If you don't have light magic they usually treat you okay, but all of the light mages have been through at least some form of torture. Apparently they are trying to find a mage that's from a different country but when I try to talk to them none of them recognized the name of the country they were asking them about," Yukino explained as she came and sat next to me. I sat down too and was surprised when she leaned her head against my shoulder.

"I'm so sorry, Lucy-san. I've been trying to stay strong and help the other girls but I'm scared. I don't want to be taken away," Yukino said with a small warble in her voice. I leaned my cheek against her head and tried to let out a soothing "shhhh" sound.

"It's alright, Yukino. Natsu, Sting, and your entire guild are looking for you right now. They won't stop until they find us."

Yukino's head bobbed against my shoulder and neither of us said anything else. My eyes drifted over to the closed door at the end of the tunnel and a fresh set of tears fell from my eyes.

"Please hurry, Natsu."

A/N Ugh, this is just depressing. I'm sorry my chapters have been a little shorter than normal. But if I continued with another POV then it would get to be really long :S