It started with his smile, taunting and power-hungry. His gleaming eyes, his jagged scar, and his looming figure. His hands outstretched like claws.

"You poor Fairy," he had laughed.

Tears, sweat, and blood...it had all surrounded me that cold and lonely night. Shadows of my friends, the roar of a battle not yet won...

"You poor Fairy," his voice echoed. "Poor, poor Fairy..." His murderous eyes turned to me, his large claws swinging towards me. Screams...

Screams surrounded me that cold and lonely night.

"Lucy!" Natsu shook her already trembling form. "Lucy, wake up!" The darkness faded from her eyes, blue fur and salmon hair slowly replacing it.

Lucy sat up hurriedly, still feeling the scarred man's twisted claws pierce her side. She blinked rapidly, trying to focus on the blob of salmon hair. "N-Natsu?"

Letting out a small sigh of relief, he held her hand, tightly. "Thank god..." he muttered. "Don't scare me like that!" he told her in a firm voice. The memories from last night flooded her mind and tears began to brim her bright eyes.

"Is Erza back?" she whispered anxiously. She stopped and shook her head, "No, wait... is she okay?"

Natsu's hand dropped from hers, the warmth fading from their precious touch, and his gaze fell to the ground. "She's in the other room..." he mumbled, nodding towards the door. "She's unconscious... in critical condition."

Desperately, Happy tried to lighten the mood, "Hah, I didn't think you knew big words, Natsu!" The Exceed let out a strained laugh, but Natsu just shook his head sadly.

"Not now, Happy..." Happy nodded solemnly. Lucy's eyes widened suddenly as she swung her bruised legs over the bed.

"Why aren't you over there? Why aren't you being the Natsu I know?" she said, her voice rising, upset and confused. Natsu's eyes clouded with a fierce anger.

"Of course I want to be over there! How could you not know that?" he shouted back at the celestial mage. His voice shook with desperation. "Don't you think I want to help? I can't, Lucy!" his eyes teared up. "I can't! I can't! I can't!" he repeated, over and over again. He felt so useless. So broken.

Lucy reached over to the trembling dragon slayer, wrapping her arms around him in a futile attempt to calm him. "I'm sorry..." she whispered.

His voice shook as he choked out the words he could. "It's okay..." He paused and looked at the blonde mage's determined brown eyes, a tiny bit of his old fire rekindling. "Let's go see Erza." 

Lucy tried to stand, but her knees were too wobbly to hold her. Natsu laughed softly as she fell into his arms. "I got ya." He picked her up, her boobs in his face.

"Natsu!" Lucy screamed, hitting his back. "Put me down!" she protested, squirming in his arms. "Or at least reposition me!"

Natsu laughed carelessly. "Why, what's wrong?" he asked, absolutely oblivious.

Lucy squealed with frustration as he started running to Erza's room, her face a brilliant red. "Natsu!" she screamed. She felt something brush against her leg.

"No! My fish!" Happy wailed. "It's been touched by Lucy!" He screamed as if it was poisoned.

Gray could hear all the commotion coming from outside the red haired mage's room. He grumbled and opened the door. "Shut up, Lucy!" Lucy glared at him and screamed back, but before Gray could answer, someone screamed.

"Jellal!" Erza was sitting up in her bed, her eyes wide with fear. "I need to get back to him!" she hollered, trying to stand up. Her legs gave out beneath her, causing the scarlet-haired girl to fall back onto the bed. "No! No!" she kept on repeating stubbornly.

"Erza!" Gray howled. "Calm down!"

Juvia placed  her hand on Gray's shoulder,"Leave this to Juvia, Gray-sama." Gray nodded and left the room in nothing, but his boxers. "Darling, your clothes." she called out. Gray shrieked,"How'd that happen?" He ran back in, collecting his clothes, then leaving.

Erza was plagued with worries, so Juvia sat next to her and held her hands. "Erza-san, what's wrong?"

Erza shook her head and looked at Juvia. "It's Jellal." Juvia nodded, signaling for the redheaded mage to continue. "He came to save me... and he stayed behind so I could get back safely..." She looked down at the ground, her scarlet hair falling over her shoulders. "He was really weak and tired..." she sighed. "He may have been captured by that- that disgusting man." Erza growled as the horrid events of the battle resurfaced.

Juvia's expression softened as she smiled gently. "Juvia's sure he's fine." Silence. "Even if he was captured, once he regains his energy, Juvia bets he could beat that man in a second."

Erza nodded and looked up at Juvia. "Thank you." Juvia embraced the tense requip mage.

"You're welcome." She pulled away and stood up. "Now," her eyes became hearts. "Juvia's going to find her beloved." Erza chuckled at the water wizard's words.

"Yes, follow your dreams!" Erza shouted as Juvia left the room. She sighed and sat back in the bed. "Please be okay." Erza mumbled in the dark, quiet room.

"Brats, listen up!" Came a familiar deep voice from the bar. His words were heavy with sadness. "Yesterday, I almost lost one of my children- one of your family members."
   
Gasps traveled through the crowd, "Who?" Someone shouted from the back.

"One of our strongest, the Fairy Queen, Titania Erza." Doubtful looks spread across the faces of the guild members, but those looks quickly turned to anger.

"Then what are we doing here? Who was this guy? We'll go kick his ass!" Loud 'whoops' and 'yeahs' echoed throughout the guild. The master's expression twisted into anger.

"Shut up!" He scanned the crowd. "Don't you think I want to make this man pay?" His voice was low and gruff. "We will make him pay! But first, we need to find him and his brothers!"

The master looked down at Lucy, a sad smile on his face. "Lucy can tell us what she knows." She was surprised, but she wanted her guild mates to know who hurt their family. She climbed onto the countertop and looked at all the guild members confidently.

"The man who hurt Erza and may have taken Jellal hostage is Scar. Scar Biron." She spotted Natsu in the crowd. He had flames bursting out of his ears. "He has two more brothers named Skull and Death. From what we know, they've come after Aquarius' key. We don't know why, though."

Flames engulfed Natsu's body and people watched nervously as he jumped onto the bar counter and screamed out, "What are we doing here? We should be taking those bastards down! They hurt our family!" Natsu's flames intensified as the cheers of the Fairy Tail guild members filled the hall.

The small lacrima shattered in front of his brown eyes. He wanted to scream and shout at the large man, but he knew that wasn't a good idea. Erza was worried about him and that's all he needed to know.

"Get ready for your torture." Grinning proudly, Scar walked off to get his two brothers. While being in the small metal cell, Jellal had learned that one of the brothers had Mind Manipulation magic and the other one was a Celestial mage.

The large man's footsteps echoed throughout the stone hallway. Jellal's shoulders sunk, his eyes darkening with remorse. "I guess this is the punishment for all of my sins..." His whispers bounced off the walls, reaching the ears of the three brothers. He felt hopeless, until he imagined a flash of scarlet hair. Jellal's breath caught in his throat. "Erza...I have to endure this for her."

The three brothers laughed in unison at the chained up man. "Dreaming about your girlfriend?" Scar's twisted laughter angered Jellal, but he kept his mouth shut.

"Aw, looks like he's a little shy." Death's pale white skin reflected moonlight like something Jellal had never seen before. The pale white hand reached to the side of the cell, where Jellal could not see, and grabbed someone by their tangled, dirt filled pink hair.

"Meredy!" Jellal shouted, worry lacing his voice.

"Looks like you finally got him going," Scar murmured. Death threw Meredy into the cell. She was knocked out cold, but inflamed bruises and deep cuts peppered her limp form. Her clothes were ripped and her hair, a tangled mess. Jellal kicked at his chains, wanting to help the poor girl. Scar and Death laughed at how much the blue-haired man struggled, but the man with the venomous black eyes hissed at the two. "Shut up. Let me do my work."

In response, Scar grumbled angrily as he opened the cell door. Skull walked into the cell, his hands outstretched, an eerie white glow emitting from him. He placed his hands on Jellal's head, covering his ears. "Ready?" The dark haired man grinned as his hands brightened.

Memories came flooding back so fast, it felt like he was being ripped apart. He tried to hold it back, but nothing was working. "Stop!" he howled in pain as memories of the Tower of Heaven tortured him. "What are you doing?" He grunted, watching his ghostly past being played out before his very own eyes. Skull removed his hands from Jellal.

"I'm using a mind manipulation spell." His grin twisted into something much more hideous. "I'm taking your memories and my, are you an evil person."

Jellal growled,"You-" he wasn't able to finish when Skull restarted his spell. Jellal tried to think of ways to block the spell, but all of his memories came rushing at him, it was too hard to think. It was when the memory of him giving Erza her name was brought forth that he was able to think again. He realized that he might be able to block the power of this terrible wizard if he blocked off his mind. If he temporarily forgot everything.

Jellal stopped thinking, all he did was picture scarlet hair, he didn't let his memories go to some other man. Skull laughed,"You don't think other people have tried that?" He increased his power, rendering Jellal useless. He couldn't stop him from having his memories.

Once all of his memories were taken, Skull kicked Jellal in the stomach. A grin was visible on Jellal's face. "You brat!" shrieked the irritated man. He kicked Jellal over and over again, causing him to cough up blood. "You didn't have anything of use to us!" Skull punched Jellal with the force of three men, at least that's what it felt like to the weak wizard. He was tired, that spell had drained all his energy. The man kept hurting the chainbound Jellal, but when Meredy woke up, Skull turned around and kicked the shrieking girl to the wall. Jellal shook his head at her, trying to signal that screaming was a bad idea. Meredy understood and stopped screaming. "What? Too afraid I'll hurt you more?" Skull laughed, kicking the girl in the stomach. "Then watch as I torture your precious Jellal." Sneered the dark-eyed man.

Meredy smirked as she established a long-distance sensory link between Erza and Jellal so that Erza would know what was happening.

Back at the guild, Erza felt a pain in her stomach, then her face. She felt someone strike her but no one was in her room. She looked down to see a sensory link and the only person she knew that could use sensory links was Meredy. Erza was confused, was it Meredy or Jellal she had been connected to? She got up from her bed, still tired and finding it hard to stand, and tried to walk to the main hall so she could find Levy. "Levy!" Erza called out, but with all the commotion in the hall, she doubted Levy could hear her.

She grabbed the wall and limped to the door, opening it slightly. "Levy!" She called again. Erza grabbed the side of the door and took a step forward. She spotted Levy, but she was busy talking to Gajeel and Pantherlily. She grabbed the molding on the wall and used it as a crutch. The pain in her stomach was getting worse, she could feel the other person getting kicked and it was awful. Erza felt a strange sense of confidence surge through her, which only confused her more.

Jellal, on the other hand, could feel all of Erza's wounds and her confusion. He gave Meredy a disapproving look, but didn't say anything. He needed to figure out how to tell Erza it was him. Meredy mouthed,"Memories."

Jellal was unsure if he would be able to share memories through the sensory link, but he did know that Meredy had gotten better at her magic. He was also worried that Skull might try that spell again, however, it was the only thing he could do to tell Erza it was him. He closed his eyes, although bruised, and focused on one of their secret meetings.

The wind blew, ruffling her beautiful scarlet hair. Her brown eyes were wide and thoughtful. "Jellal," she whispered fiercely. "You know these meetings are dangerous."

Indeed he did, but he didn't want to stop seeing her... not after being pardoned.

"I know," he sighed, grabbing a lock of her gleaming hair. "but how will we see each other if we don't meet like this?" Jellal paused to examine one of her shorter strands. "Someone's been brushing their hair." he teased, twirling a lock, causing the female mage to blush.

"You know my guildmates won't assume we're just friends." It felt like someone had stabbed him in the chest. 'Friend-zoned,' he laughed internally.

"Maybe they don't have to." Boldly, he leaned forward and kissed her cheek. Both, Jellal and Erza, blushed. Jellal regretted being so straight-forward and began to apologize.

"Hey! Look at me!" Whined Skull. "Look at me while I beat you!"

"Just stop already." Someone sighed. "I think he's had enough." The mysterious man waved his hand dismissively. "Now, go." He looked at Jellal with a smirk. "We need to talk."