Natsu's POV

"Hurry up, Happy!" I said as Wendy and Shararu zoomed through the sky in front of us.

"Aye, sir!" Happy cried out, speeding up so that we were now flying side-by-side with Wendy and Shararu. Just when we had caught up though, Shararu dipped down towards the streets below. I angled myself to help Happy as he followed after her and after a few more tense, silent moments, Happy set me on my feet.

The floral smell mixed with ink and parchment paper that had been my near-constant companion for the past three years hit my nostrils and I ran forward, expecting to find Lucy hiding behind a barrel trying to surprise me. I could feel my mouth turn down as my jaw clenched tightly. The desire to punch the nearest wall to oblivion almost won over me, but I knew that that would only delay my search for Lucy and Phaedra. Taking a deep breath, my frown deepened even more as I realized that Lucy's smell didn't go past the spot that Wendy and Shararu had brought us to. It seemed to just vanish from existence.

"Anything, Natsu-san?" Sting's voice called out as he and Rogue touched down as well. I turned to look at him and as he sniffed I knew that he would come to the same conclusion as I had.

"They're gone..." Wendy said, slowly falling to her knees where the smell of leather and a strange citrusy scent that I couldn't place marked where Phaedra had been last.

"What happened to them exactly, Wendy?" Rogue asked just as Laxus, Erza, and Gray all ran up through the alleyway to gather around with us. Wendy explained how Phaedra and Lucy had gotten trapped in what she called "magic bubblegum" that had kept them from moving. She hadn't gotten a good look at the kidnapper, but she knew that the person was wearing a large black cloak. Other than that, the only thing we knew was that Phaedra and Lucy had been here and had disappeared seemingly into thin air.

"So how are we going to find Lucy?" I asked, glancing around at the group of mages I was standing among.

"Didn't you say that you were able to track Yukino's scent but it seemed to be coming from under the ground?" Rogue asked, turning to look at Sting and then me. Sting nodded in agreement and I turned my focus on the Shadow Dragon Slayer.

"Do you have an idea?" I asked, my voice harsher than I meant for it to be. My blood seemed to be made of liquid lava as I thought of what the kidnappers might be doing to Lucy. I was getting fired up and all I could say was that whoever tried to stand in my way of finding Lucy was going to wish they had never seen me coming.

"In my studies of old maps of Hyacinth I have found several references to escape tunnels that run through the rock underneath the city," Rogue said quietly, his eyes were half-lidded as if he were trying to recall the maps as he spoke. "I can't remember ever seeing a description of how to enter the tunnels, though. And I don't see anywhere that they could be accessed from here." I looked down at the ground and began stomping around, hoping to find some kind of hidden catch or a disguised hole. Usually, it was Lucy who figured out these kinds of puzzles and I growled in frustration that the kidnappers would dare take her away.

"Even if there was an entrance to the tunnels from here, their scent would lead us to it. But all I can smell is that they were here and nothing else," Laxus said in a gruff tone as he came to stand next to Wendy. "What could make them disappear like that?" he asked. A fizzing sound came from behind me and I looked over in surprise to see a decidedly green Mest stumble to his knees after appearing from thin air. The answer suddenly clicked and I let out a low growl.

"They have a teleportation mage," I said angrily as Wendy rushed over to Mest, placing one hand against his head and sending a small amount of healing magic into him. Mest smiled at her gratefully and then stood up to look at us.

"If our kidnapper has teleportation magic then they can't be too far if they brought Lucy and Phaedra unwillingly with them," Mest said before he closed his eyes and held out one of his hands. I watched in surprise as the air where Lucy's scent was still lingering rippled in front of his hands and after a second Mest frowned and lowered his hand, ending the weird rippling.

"Whoever took the girls is a skilled mage. I can't tell exactly where he transported to, but I definitely got the sense that it was somewhere within the city limits."

"Sting, can you take us to the spot where you thought you smelled Yukino?" Rogue asked, looking over at his pseudo brother with determination flickering in his dark eyes. Sting nodded, glancing over at me as if to confirm that I would back him up. I lifted my fist in a silent show of support and Sting turned, looking at our small band of friends.

"Follow me," he said simply before running back towards the edge of town we had spent hours scouring this afternoon.

"Happy, carry Mest, he needs the rest," I said as Happy flew up next to me.

"Aye, sir!" he agreed immediately before looping back and picking up Mest, who wasn't looking too good. Mest shot me a grateful look and I nodded briefly before turning and following after Sting's receding figure. Gray came up next to me and we fell into an easy rhythm as we ran side by side.

"Whoever beats up the most kidnappers owes the other one dinner," Gray challenged as we ran. I glanced over at him and saw that even though his voice had been light, his face was taut with anger and his eyes seemed to be saying that he wanted an excuse for going all out and destroying the guys who stole our friends. I grinned widely and held up one arm, gripping my hand into a fist. Gray immediately tapped his forearm against mine and I nodded at him.

"Let's show them they messed with the wrong guild," I growled back at him. Gray grinned with a wicked light in his dark eyes and we pushed even harder, lengthening our stride and running swiftly through the nearly empty streets.

Once we had gotten to the spot Sting and I had searched earlier that day everyone gathered together and I inhaled deeply. My eyes popped open in relief when I picked out a faint trace of Lucy's scent, although just like Yukino's I couldn't tell where it was coming from exactly. It seemed to be floating up from the ground underneath us but not from one specific spot.

"What should we be looking for, Rogue?" Erza asked as she looked around her at the large warehouses that lined both sides of the deserted street.

"As I said, the maps didn't give any details about how to access the tunnels. My best guess would be to look for a grate or maybe an opening into the sewers," Rogue said with a small frown as he looked around. Happy gently deposited Mest onto the ground and after shaking his head he turned in a small circle.

"If someone used teleportation magic nearby I may be able to sense it," he said, although he didn't look very confident.

"Everyone split up and look for anything that could be an entrance to an underground tunnel. Mest, if you can help us narrow down the search that would be helpful," Erza said, naturally taking charge of the situation.

Without question, we all immediately set to the task. I tried to follow my nose to the place I could smell Lucy the strongest, but I couldn't understand why her scent seemed so muddled. After about five minutes Mest called out and I ran over to where he was. He had gone inside one of the warehouses along the side of the road and as I screeched around the corner and jumped through the window he had opened Lucy's scent suddenly became more solid.

"The magic imprint is strongest in here," Mest said as everyone slipped through the open window and began going through the large building.

Sting and I immediately turned the same direction and as one leaned back and kicked down a door to our left. Lucy's scent wafted faintly towards me from the staircase that the door had been blocking. Without a word I ran down the stairs, Sting and all of my friends hot on my heels.

As we descended the seemingly never-ending staircase a damp, musty smell began to permeate my nostrils and I had to concentrate to be able to pick out Lucy's scent. When we finally got to the bottom of the stairs I blinked at the small empty room in front of me. Sting rammed into my back, pushing me into the room and we both fell forward from the force of our collision.

"Oy, Sting! Watch it!" I growled as we picked ourselves up and made room for everyone else.

"Don't stop so suddenly, Natsu-san," Sting said with a testy edge to his voice. Normally if I heard a tone like that it immediately made me want to do battle, but right now I was too focused on finding Lucy to pay attention to my desire for a good fight.

"What now, Mest-san?" Wendy asked as she and Mest brought up the rear of our line of would-be rescuers. We all looked at the small, very empty room and I couldn't help but let out a growl of frustration.

"Let's just beat the walls down!" I yelled as Mest looked around with a confused frown. Brining my foot up I slammed it against the piece of the wall directly in front of me and frowned when it didn't budge.

"I don't think it's the walls, Natsu," Mest said as I continued to kick the wall with a similar result. "I think there is a trap door somewhere."

At this observation we all looked at the small floor we were crowded on. To my surprise, Wendy stepped forward giving the floor the most intense glare I had seen from her in a while.

"Everyone, step back, please," she said in a firm voice. I immediately did as she asked and within seconds some of the most powerful mages that I had fought against were lining the wall of the small room with a 15 year-old-girl standing confidently in the middle. Taking a large breath Wendy jumped up, reaching to nearly the ceiling with one leap and then brought her arms down towards the ground.

"Talon of the Sky Dragon!" she called out as intense ribbons of wind rushed down towards the ground.

I held a hand in front of my eyes as dust and who knows what else burst into the air. After only a few seconds of the onslaught of multi-directional wind, one of the tiles on the ground popped up briefly before snapping closed once more. Wendy immediately stopped her attack and dropped to the ground, running over to the tile that had popped open. We all followed after her as she, Mest, and Erza lifted the tile and exposed another set of stairs that looked to be carved out of the rock.

"Well done, Wendy," Mest said quietly as we all waited to see if anything would happen after uncovering the secret staircase. When nothing happened though I slipped between my friends and began marching down the stairs. Now that I was in the tunnel, dozens of smells accosted my nose and I was getting increasingly angry as I realized that the main thing I was smelling was the sour musk of fear.

The staircase ended in a dank tunnel that spread out in front of me like the maw of a slumbering beast. Everyone silently jogged down the tunnel as a strange sense of urgency began to fill me. The smell of fear was getting so strong that it was beginning to mask the smell of Lucy, which in turn made me quicken my steps. I didn't even pause when the tunnel branched into three different directions. The fear in my nose led me to the right tunnel and nobody questioned my choice, probably because the other dragon slayers were smelling the same thing as me.

As we continued jogging down the tunnel silently, a sound that chilled my heart caught my ear. I glanced over at Sting, who was running next to me, and the look of rage on his face told me I hadn't imagined it. The scared cries of Lucy and Yukino lightly echoed down the tunnel and I instantly burst into a full-on sprint.

Sting and I burst through the tunnel into a huge underground cave. My eyes swept over the dozens of women who were exuding scents of fear, hopelessness, and dried blood. Lucy's scream ripped my attention away from the awful sight and my vision turned red as I saw two people in black cloak's forcing Lucy and Yukino down against the ground as a third stood over them with his hands moving towards Lucy's chest.

"Dierdre is sorry she can't be here, but we just need to make sure you aren't stuffing that shirt of yours. The buyers don't like being tricked," I heard the man say from across the cave.

A feral roar ripped through my throat and flames burst from my feet. I could hear the background noises of shock and anger as the other black-cloaked people saw me, but the only thing I could see was the pervert who was about to feel up my Lucy. Flipping in mid-air, I brought my heel down on the back of the guy's neck, which smashed his entire body into the ground with so much force a cloud of rock and dust burst up around the outline of his body.

"Natsu!" Lucy cried out in a warbling voice.

I turned around and glared at the man who was still holding Lucy down. He quickly backed up and within seconds a gun materialized in his hand. I shifted to the side as the bullets he had just fired whizzed past me, then ducked down and ran towards him. Even with his hooded cloak, I could see the fear in his eyes as I reached up, grabbing his puny gun and with one hard tug bent the barrel upwards. The idiot was too scared to do anything but try and pull the trigger, which caused the gun to backfire and explode in our faces.

I waved away the dust, ignoring the small pieces of shrapnel that had embedded themselves in my arm and chest and turned to look at Lucy. Her hands and feet were wrapped in a weird bluish-gray substance, but she had sat up and was looking at me with tears dripping from her eyes. Sting had already taken care of the other guy that had been holding Yukino so I ignored the sounds of battle behind me for a second and knelt down next to Lucy, placing a hand on the stuff around her hands to try and figure out what it was made of.

"You okay?" I asked. An explosion erupted behind me, followed by dozens of screams from the women in the cave. I wanted to look back but I waited for Lucy to nod shakily.

"Phaedra... she tried to protect me. They took her that way," Lucy said as she looked over to the end of the tunnel where for some reason a wooden door was set up.

"We'll get her," I promised before I glanced over my shoulder.  Whoever these guys were, they definitely had not been expecting an invasion from mages as destructive as we were. I watched as Laxus took out three of the hooded villains with a roar of the Lightning Dragon and Erza dispatched the rest of the people standing with her Heaven's Wheel Armor. Mounds of ice were decorating the cave with several black-cloaked villains hanging from them and I saw several men scream like girls as Rogue materialized from their shadows and attacked them. I felt briefly disappointed that I couldn't have beaten up more of the idiots who had dared kidnap my friends, but I turned away from them and refocused on the stuff trapping Lucy's hands.

"Hold still," I said to Lucy as I moved towards her feet. Calling up the hottest flame I could to my fist I pulled back and smashed the stuff. I grinned widely as a large crack splintered the orb and after another punch, the weird substance shattered. I looked over to see that Sting was copying my move and liberating Yukino.

As I moved over to free Lucy's hand, the sound of running feet caught my attention. A protective instinct flared up in me but before I could turn around Gray's crisp scent hit my nose and I immediately refocused on punching the orb around Lucy's hands.

"Lucy, you okay?" Gray asked as I pulled back and smashed my fire-encased fist into the orb. I saw Lucy nod her head but I frowned when tears continued to drip down her cheeks.

"Phaedra was taken by their leader and the creepy girl who captured us. They haven't come back yet," she said. The orb around her hands finally disintegrated under my third punch and I looked up to see that Gray looked as angry as I had ever seen him before.

"Where is she?" he growled.

"They took her through that door. She tried to help me and she got really hurt," Lucy said with a quivering voice as she once again pointed to the wooden door on the other side of the cave.

"We'll get her back." I jumped in surprise as Laxus's deep voice growled from behind me. I wasn't sure how he had managed to sneak up on me, but before I could ask, he and Gray both began running towards the door Lucy had indicated.

"I should go, too," Lucy said, pushing herself up into a standing position but I immediately stepped forward and caught her as her legs wobbled and gave out.

"Leave it to Gray and Laxus. No one would be able to beat them," I said with a grin, feeling almost jealous that I wouldn't be able to watch the beat down that I was sure was about to happen. But Lucy wasn't alright and she came first. I looked down when Lucy wrapped her hands into my vest and my heart sank when she looked up at me and was still crying.

"Natsu... Natsu I want you to teach me how to fight," Lucy declared, her voice still wavering. I blinked in surprise and quirked an eyebrow up.

"You know how to fight, Luce," I said with a frown and was surprised when she shook her head violently.

"No! I'm nothing without my celestial spirits. When these guys trapped Phaedra and me, I was completely helpless. But Phaedra... even though her hands and feet her trapped like mine, she fought off two people who were trying to hurt me. And I couldn't do anything..." Lucy's tears were coming down harder and I was momentarily blinded by hate at the thought of these sleazeballs trying to hurt my teammate. That thought was quickly replaced by sadness though as Lucy tipped forward and leaned her forehead against my chest. My arms naturally circled her shoulders as she cried against me and I sighed through my nose.

"Okay, Lucy. When we get back to Fairy Tail I'll teach you some hand-to-hand fighting, okay?" I said as I squeezed her gently. Lucy sniffled, causing her head to rub delicately against my chest before she leaned back and looked at me with a hopeful expression.

"Really? You'll teach me?" she asked with another sniffle.

"Why not? If you learn to fight then battling you will be even more fun in the future," I said with a large grin. Lucy's hopeful expression lasted for another millisecond, but then her face fell into one of barely contained annoyance as she pushed against me and let out a small 'humph'. "What?" I asked, confused by her reaction. Lucy folded her arms and glared at me.

"You have no sense of tact, Natsu Dragneel," she said in an accusatory tone. I blinked, my brain not processing at all where that statement had just come from.

"Huh?" I breathed out, completely baffled as to why Lucy was suddenly mad.

"I mean, you just rescued me and promised to help me and then you say you want to fight me? Shouldn't your reaction be more like that?" she asked, pointing swiftly to her left.

I turned to look and blinked mutely as I saw that Sting, who had just freed Yukino from her weird orbs, had leaned forward and kissed Yukino full on the mouth. Yukino's face flushed a cherry red and she looked like she was about to faint, but then she slowly closed her eyes and leaned into Sting. Regarding the two for a second, I turned back to look at Lucy who was glaring angrily at me and I cocked my head at her.

"You want me to kiss you?" I asked in confusion.

"She liiiiiikes you," Happy intoned from behind me with a creepy smile. Lucy's ears turned red and she quickly shook her head.

"It's not that I want you to kiss me! Just... read the mood a little better!" she said with an embarrassed look on her face. I scratched my head in confusion as I looked between Happy and Lucy and wondered what exactly Lucy was trying to say.

"Ugh, whatever, just forget it," Lucy said, stomping over towards the wall of the cave. Feeling like I needed to say something to make her feel better, I quickly followed after her and grabbed her by the wrist. Lucy looked over at me with wide eyes and I stared right into them.

"I don't really have any interest in kissing and doing stuff like that. But if I did I would only want to do that with you, Lucy," I said firmly. Lucy's eyes widened so much it looked like they were going to take over her face, but then her lips turned down in a frown and she narrowed her brown eyes slightly towards me.

"So you don't care about romance but if you ever did you would choose me as your partner? Wow, thanks, Natsu. It's great to know I'm your backup plan," she intoned dully before turning away and pulling her arm from my hand. I folded my arms in confusion as I watched her pick up her celestial key's pouch that had been left in a recess along the wall as well as a pouch that I recognized as Yukino's.

"Why is she so annoyed?" I asked Happy as we watched her walk towards Yukino and Sting, who were both looking thoroughly embarrassed and uncertain about what had just transpired between them.

"Maybe she needs a fish," Happy commented while holding a paw on his chin. I shrugged and followed after her.

"Phaedra-san? Lucy-san? Phaedra-san!" My eyes lifted up past Lucy and saw Wendy running through the tunnel of women calling out for her friends.

"Oy, Wendy!" I called out to her. She turned immediately towards me and her eyes widened as they landed on Lucy and Yukino. She scrambled through all the women, most of which were crying, and ran over to us.

"Lucy-san! Yukino-san! Are you alright?" she asked, dropping to her knees next to them.

"We're okay, Wendy. Gray and Laxus went after Phaedra," Lucy said. Wendy's shoulders relaxed visibly as she let out a long sigh. "Thanks for bringing them to us, Wendy," Lucy said, reaching out and gathering Wendy into her arms. Wendy hugged her back tightly and I again wondered why Lucy had been so upset about me not kissing her. Shrugging inwardly I turned to see that Erza, Rogue, and Mest were all binding the hooded people they had taken out.

"We'll be back," I said to Lucy.

"There are lots of women who were hurt badly by these guy's leader, Wendy," Yukino said in her soft voice at the same time. Wendy nodded in understanding and slowly stood up. We both made our way into the sea of women but Wendy peeled away to start using her magic to heal some of the women.

"We need to start helping the women out of the cave," I heard Erza say as I made my way towards her and Rogue.

"Let's finish restraining these people and then we can start leading them out," Rogue responded calmly as he threw several lengths of rope towards me. I caught them easily and turned to one of the knocked out men in front of me.

"You chose the wrong guilds to mess with," I growled at the unconscious man before beginning to tie his hands.

A/N Ugh, I don't know why but Natsu's POV is really hard for me! Hopefully, it wasn't too painful to read :P And hopefully the picture didn't fake anyone out. Lucy's okay, no worries! :P