My chest exploded in fear as I stood up from the table. "N-Natsu! I..."
"Save it!" he snapped, making me flinch backwards. He stomped up to me, grabbing my wrist. I was too shocked to say anything.
"You're coming with me."
"But-" Natsu yanked my arm, dragging me out the front door. My wrist was getting hotter from his grip by the second, and Eevee followed closely behind me in fear of what he would do to me. I held her back with a hand motion though, because I didn't want her to hurt him or herself. "Where are we going?"
He didn't answer, just tugged me harder. "Ow! That hurts, Natsu!" He let out a frustrated breath. "Let go of me!"
"No!" he growled back.
I creased my eyebrows. This time I tugged on him to have him let go of my wrist. My arms crossed on my chest in anger. "Why are you so pissed off at me all of a sudden?"
"Just come on," he growled again.
"Not until you tell me why!" Eevee hopped up on my shoulder to defend me with angry eyes herself.
"Then tell me why you lied!" He then suddenly asked.
I softened my face. "What are you talking about?"
"I heard every word you said." He finally turned to face me with his dragon eyes and teeth as sharp as glass. His scarf blew in the breeze along with my pony-tailed hair.
I was confused at why at first with him being so far away when I was talking, but then I remembered the extremely heightened senses of the dragon slayer. I put both hands to my head and closed my eyes in stupidness. Of course he heard me! His ears could hear a leaf landing a mile away!
"Damn..." I groaned. Now I've done it. This was exactly what Papa told me not to do. "Natsu, I...I don't know what to say." I felt tears coming into my eyes in what would happen next. "I'm so sorry..." I sobbed. "I just wanted to protect you..."
"We don't need protecting! We can take care of them! They underestimate Fairy Tail! Or rather you do!"
"Shut up!" I screamed in rage. My eyes were now losing the tears, and Natsu widened his eyes in shock. "There you go again, thinking that everything will be fine because of your strength! Well it won't be, Natsu! Because not everything is won, especially when we're so outnumbered!" He tried to speak, but I cut him off. "The reason I didn't tell you was because of that. Because you just barge right in and make it worse. So many people would be hurt..." I lifted my eyes to glare at him. "And that is not what's going to happen to my family!"
I spun around and sprinted back to the guild. "Elena!" Natsu yelled, but I was not going to give in to him. I didn't care if he told the rest of them now; it wouldn't make a difference for how I felt about the whole thing. But I had to tell Papa about what he knows!
I kept running, but as I turned a corner, I had to skid to a stop. A big man with a dark trench coat was standing in the middle of the street with a wide grin on his face. I looked at him in confusion.
It wasn't until he winked and Eevee fell off my shoulder with a thump that I screamed in fear.
"NOOOOO-!!!" My voice was cut off by the dark wizard doing the same thing to me. My consciousness quickly faded.
I landed on the cement with a loud thump.
~~~
My eyes fluttered open to a bright room from the sun shining in. My vision was fuzzy, and I had to blink a few times to clear it. I looked around, seeing my team members around the bed I slept in.
"Ellie! You're awake!" Lucy sounded happy.
"Ugh..." I tried to sit up, and my head was throbbing as I did. "What happened?"
"We found you passed out on the ground outside!" Wendy exclaimed. "We thought you were really hurt!"
"What happened, Ellie?" Gray asked.
I blinked hard again, trying to make my head feel better. It didn't help much. "I..." I tried hard to think. "I remember going back to the guild after I was talking to Natsu, and then someone was standing in front of me."
"Okay. What happened next?" Lucy pushed.
"He winked at me, and then..." My eyes widened in fear when I finally remembered what happened. "Where's Eevee?"
"What?" Lucy asked.
That's when I remembered the rest of them, too. I looked around, seeing my bag on the chair next to me. "Give me my bag. Now!" I almost screamed this I was so scared.
"Elena, what's wrong?" Erza asked, but I was too keen on making sure I was wrong.
I unzipped my bag, and every single pokéball was gone.
"No..." I was now shaking. "No...no...no, no, no, no!!!" The tears wouldn't stop falling now.
Lucy stood up to comfort me. "Ellie! What's happened?!"
"THEY'RE GONE!!!" I screamed. "THEY TOOK THEM, ALL OF THEM!!!"
"What...?" Natsu now spoke, and he almost yelled. "What do you mean they took them?!"
"The dark guilds!!" I sobbed. "They finally took all my Pokémon, my family!!" I sobbed more, not stopping my quivering. "EEVEE!!" Lucy pulled me into a hug, and stroked my back as I cried in fear.
"Those bastards..." Natsu growled after two minutes. I sniffed, and pushed my head away from Lucy to look at him. His face was covered in rage, blood vessels showing on his forehead and muscular arms. His fists were so clenched, I could have sworn they were starting to smoke from unseen flames.
"Natsu...?" I said, my voice weak.
"They took our guild mates...our friends!" Natsu clenched his teeth as he said this. "They're going to pay for what they've done...but more than that..." He yelled as he threw the side table into the wall which shattered with a crash. "THEY'RE GOING TO PAY FOR MAKING YOU CRY!!!"
I stared at him with a wet face and in fear. My breath came out ragged then, and my heart skipped a beat. More tears fell. "Natsu..." I said. He looked at me softening his eyes just a smidgen in wonder. "Please," I sobbed. "Please save them."
He finally loosened his anger, and stepped around the bed to crouch down to me. I felt my cheeks get hot as he stared strongly into my eyes. "I promise," he said.
"We all do," I had forgotten Lucy was still comforting me, and looked around at the rest of Team Natsu. They all were grinning with confidence. It wasn't until I came back to Natsu's grinning face that everything came out of my eyes.
"You guys..." I kept sobbing. "You guys are so amazing..."
"We'll teach those punks a lesson for kidnapping your team. And our friends!" Gray crossed his arms.
"Aye!" Happy raised a paw while hovering in the air.
"And we'll be back before you know it with every single one of them in their pokéballs unharmed." Erza told me while smiling.
"I'm going too..." I started to push myself out of bed, but my head had other ideas. It started to throb terribly, and Lucy put her hand on my chest to keep me down. I must have hit my head super hard on the pavement.
"You're staying here at the guild," Lucy scolded.
"But-"
"You're too weak to go with us! Plus, you're unarmed now. How will you fight and defend yourself?"
She had a point. Now that all of my Pokémon were gone, I was practically a newborn Pidgey that had just hatched out of its egg. I hated it, but Lucy was right. I loosened my arms to sit back into the bed. "Yeah..." I surrendered. "I just wish I was going to save them as their trainer."
"Think of it this way," Wendy put in. "We'll finally be able to show them how much they mean to us. To show them what it means to be in Fairy Tail!"
"That's right!" Lucy agreed. "We'll be able to fight with them again! Wouldn't that be awesome?"
I thought about it, then smiled. Lucy noticed. "There's the smile I'm looking for!" She giggled. "Ellie's back!"
"Okay," I decided. "But promise me something else when you go." I looked at Natsu again with a serious face. "Be careful. You're going up against all of the dark guilds in Fiore, and that means that everyone will have to fight. I mean it this time. Don't do anything rash. Please."
Natsu smiled. "Come on, when have we done anything like that?"
"Seriously?" Lucy glared at him with annoyed eyes. "Everything you do is rash!"
"Is not!" he countered.
They're arguing made me smile, then giggle. They looked at me with confused eyes. "Nothing," I said. I couldn't keep doing this. I had to trust them now. It was as simple as that. "I just know that you'll bring them home safely."
"You bet we will," I heard Makarov step into the infirmary.
"Papa?" I asked.
"I've gotten in contact with all of the other guilds. We've created an allegiance. And along with the Magic Council, those bozos don't stand a chance."
I snorted. "Bozos..." I couldn't contain my laughter.
He gave me a look of stupidity. "What'd I say?"
I stopped laughing. "Nothing," I put my hand down. "I'm just so happy to be in Fairy Tail, that's all."
Lucy smiled next to me, along with everyone else in the room. "Good," she said. "We're so glad to have you!"
"Let's go, Fairy Tail!" Papa yelled. "It's time to save our family members!" Everyone cheered, and that family feeling came back into my heart.
"We'll have Wendy and Carla look after you and protect you." Erza said. "There's also a special lacrimal television where you can see whatever you ask it to. Use it to keep tabs on how we're doing."
"Okay," I nodded. "Come back soon."
"We will, quit worrying!" Lucy scolded.
"I'm not worrying! I just care about my family."
"We're going to get them! You don't have to worry about that."
"No, Gray." I lowered my head. "I mean you guys. You know that I love all of you..." My hand clenched the sheet. Was that too much info?
"We love you too, Ellie." Lucy said. "And that's why it's going to be a piece of cake!" Lucy gave me a last hug. "We'll be home when you wake up again."
"Yeah," I agreed. "I'll watch over you."
Everyone left then, Natsu lifting up his hand to wave to me behind him.
"Are you still worried?" Wendy asked beside me.
"I think Elena's tired of that question, Wendy." Carla stated.
"No," I answered. "I'm not worried. Not at all."