Chaos & Salamander

Chapter 17 - Puppet Lucy

Natsu's POV

Stupid Demon Woman. The fight between Blondie and Light Jerk was just getting interesting and now we have to deal with six of the nine Hydra Heads. "This is your one and only warning. Abandon your mission and we shall spare your lives" Rika said with her arms crossed. "You can't scare us away that easily" Lucy replied and everyone nodded except for me, Sting and Rogue. "You have been warned" she said and threw some coins into the air. They transformed into three large light grey mice. Erza and Gray were the first to run to attack her.

I saw Seki staring at Lucy and suddenly notice his eyes flashed gold. I noticed Lucy tense up before turning to face me. Her chocolate brown eyes were replaced with golden eyes. She was being controlled. I remembered his power was to control humans like puppets. Lucy lit both of her fists on fire and started stalking towards me. "Lucy, what are you doing?" Happy asked worriedly as he hovered beside me. She didn't answer but instead she threw a punch down at me which I dodged by jumping backwards with Happy. "Natsu, what's wrong with Lucy?" Happy asked as he stayed back. "She's being controlled" I replied as I dodged another one of her flaming punches.

"Lucy! Snap out of it!" Happy shouted which obviously didn't work. Lucy swung another punch at me but as I took a step back to dodge, she bent down to do a handstand and then kicked me on the chin. 'Tch, I need to take her down without hurting her' I thought while rubbing my chin and dodging a flaming kick aimed at my stomach. I looked at her scarf and got an idea.

"Fire Dragon Roar!" she chanted and I rolled out of the way of her incoming flames. Once I regained my footing, I ran towards her and pulled her white scaly scarf off her neck. As she tried to punch me, I slipped behind her and tied her scarf around her arms and waist. She struggled against her restraints but couldn't break free. "Happy" I called and he flew over to us. "Keep her in the air" I told him. He replied "aye!" before grabbing the back of Lucy's shirt and lifting her into the air.

'Now to deal with the puppeteer' I thought as I turned towards where Seki was, only to find he had disappeared. Guess he's a long-range type attacker? I looked around and noticed no one around. 'Everyone must've split up while I was fighting Blondie' I thought. Looking up at Lucy, I noticed she was still under Seki's control, struggling to break free from her scarf and Happy. I waved Happy to fly her back down and when he brought her close enough, I hit her on a pressure point behind the neck. Her eyes changed back to brown just before she fell unconscious.

I took her from Happy and laid her down against a nearby tree. "Will she be alright?" Happy asked as I untied Lucy's scarf and wrapped it around her neck again. "Yeah, when she wakes up she should be herself again" I replied and he sighed in relief. "Where did everyone go?" I asked him. "Erza and Gray went to fight creature woman and her large mice. Lyon and Sherry were fighting the invisible man. The three playboys from Blue Pegasus were fighting the creepy girl with the doll, and Sting, Rogue and Yukino were fighting the twins. Everyone looked like they were having trouble" he replied. I took a moment to think. Our enemies are a lot stronger than I thought.

A groan coming from Lucy broke me out of my thoughts. I watched as her eyes open with her usual chocolate brown colour. She groaned and quickly shut her eyes again as she grasped her head. "Are you ok Lucy?" Happy asked as he walked up to her and put his paws on her leg. "Yeah, I've just got a headache. What happened to me?" she asked, looking up at me and Happy. "You don't remember?" Happy asked and Lucy shook her head. "Last thing I remember was Rika's coins turning into large mice" she replied. "You were under Seki's control" I said. "Yeah and you started fighting Natsu" Happy added.

"Oh my Mavis! Did I really do that? I'm so sorry Natsu" Lucy apologised frantically. I shrugged and said "don't worry about it." She smiled and looked around while standing up. "Where is everyone?" she asked. "We don't know, everyone split up" Happy replied. "Well I guess we should keep moving" Lucy said and started walking. "How do you know you're going the right way?" Happy asked. Lucy spun around and tapped her nose twice while walking backwards. "I remember Seki's scent" she said and then spun back around to walk forward. Happy and I looked at each other. "How come you didn't remember his scent?" Happy asked. I shrugged and then we followed after Lucy.

As we walked, Happy question brought on a question of my own. 'How did she remember his scent while I didn't? We were both the same distance away from Seki' I wondered. A bad feeling started brewing in my gut. 'Wait! What if controlling humans isn't the only spell Seki can do?' I thought and then Seki's disappearance made sense. I grabbed Lucy's shoulder, making her stop. "You're not Lucy are you" I growled with a scowl on my face.

"I'm not surprised you figured me out Chaos" Lucy, or should I say Seki, said looking over her shoulder with a smirk and golden eyes.