"W-What?" Lucy sputtered in utter disbelief. "Me… marry you?"

"Yes, that's right." The hooded man nodded. "You see, Lucy, you come from a rich and well-known family and my organization needs some extra cash."

Lucy flung her head to the side, making the hooded man drop his hand. "I will never marry you!" She yelled. Marriage was something she wanted to keep special and saved for when she finally met her true love. "I refuse to do anything of that sort!"

"Now, now, Lucy. Don't be hasty! You want to free your friends, don't you?" The man placed his hand on Lucy's chin again and smirked. "It would be unfortunate if your friends never got to see you again." He pouted mockingly before cackling. "It would be such a shame."

Lucy felt an urge to spit on the hooded man, but she restrained herself. "I don't have any money for you to take, so marrying me won't benefit you anyways!" She pulled her chin out of the man's grasp and backed up in her cage. "So please just let me and my friends go!"

The hooded man's smirk faded as he turned away. "If there's one thing I can't stand, it's a liar."

"I'm not lying." Lucy snapped, fists clenching. "If you don't believe me, go do some research yourself. The Heartfilia Konzern went out of business a long time ago."

The hooded man stiffened. "If you're not telling the truth," He said slowly. "Your friends will pay the consequences." He stuck his hand into a hidden compartment of his cloak and pulled out Lucy's keys, swinging the key ring around his finger before leaving.

"That jerk!" The celestial mage screamed. She tugged at her hair angrily. How could he not know that my family's business was over years ago? She thought. He's quite dumb for not doing the research before kidnapping me... His organization is probably poorly-run if he's the boss. No wonder he's resorting to marriage and inheritance to gain some extra cash. Lucy snickered at her own thoughts and lightened the mood. "There's no need to worry about your spirits." She told herself. "I didn't tell a single lie, so they won't be harmed."

After sitting in her cramped cage for a while (she wasn't sure how much time had passed, there was no way for her to tell the time after all), a different hooded man appeared before her. Lucy looked up at him expectantly.

"Lucy Heartfilia," He said, his voice quite monotone. "You are free to go." He opened a hidden control panel in the room and pressed a couple of buttons, causing the cage walls to disperse and freeing Lucy.

The blonde walked out of her cell shakily, since her body wasn't used to movement after sitting for so long. After managing to get close to the man, she wavered. "Where are my keys?"

The man turned towards the door. "You shall get them once we are outside."

Lucy bit her lip in anxiety. If she couldn't get her spirits back now, that would mean that she was completely defenseless. Heck, even her whip was gone. She would have to ask Virgo for another once she got her back.

"Okay." She replied unsurely.

The hooded man smiled from her compliance and led her out the room and down a series of halls and stairs. Lucy's eyes kept wandering the entire time. From her observations, she was underground. She had to go up too many flights of stairs to be aboveground. Also, the walls of the complex looked old and… unstable. She shivered at the thought of the entire building caving in. Thankfully, she made it outside without being squished like a bug by debris. "Keys?" She asked, turning to the man.

He reached into his pocket and pulled out the keys, handing them over to the blonde. "Sorry for the trouble." He said quietly. Surprisingly, he wasn't speaking in a monotone voice anymore. Instead, his voice was kind of sweet and soft. What a change in personality!

Lucy, who was still in shock, could only nod and watch as the man made his way back to the building. Soon enough, she recovered and looked at her keys happily. "You're all back!" She laughed with relief. She was about to go her own way, except she realized that one key was missing. More specifically, a white key. "Twinkle!"

Quickly, she turned and ran back to the hooded man who gave her the keys. "Excuse me!" She shouted rather angrily. Did he steal Twinkle? Is that what caused the change in personality at the end? "Excuse me!"

The man stopped and turned around as Lucy caught up to him. "Is there a problem?" He asked.

"Yes, I'm missing a key. I would like to have it back." She demanded. Her patience was running out. She had been kidnapped, called a liar, and was cramped up in a tiny cage for hours, and now, to make it worse, one of her keys was missing!

"Oh, but those were all the keys the boss gave me. There was no other key." He said, a bit confused.

Lucy furrowed her eyebrows. "What do you mean? I'm missing a white key. I'm sure there was a white key with me before I got knocked out." She seethed.

"I-I'm sorry I don't know where that extra key is! But don't take it out on me; I'm not the one who knocked you out, miss. I was just sent to escort you out." The man defended himself, holding up his hands as if to say 'I come in peace'.

Lucy, who was just as confused as the hooded man in front of her, took a step back and tried to calm herself down. "Sorry I snapped at you. I understand you're just a worker for that jerk-boss."

To her surprise, he laughed. "Yeah, he can be an idiot sometimes, but the new organization president keeps him in check. If he said anything weird to you, I apologize."

Lucy thought back to the marriage proposal and shivered. "I see. Do you think the boss or the president has my key? I really need it back."

"It could be possible. If your key is really valuable, the boss could have taken it to sell for money. But there's a chance that the president may have taken the key, since she was the one who ordered the boss to bring you here." The man paused when Lucy shot him a look. "Believe me, miss, it wasn't supposed to be a kidnapping. But you know how my boss can be..."

Lucy pressed her lips into a firm line. Yes, I do know how he can be. He is a very unintelligent creature. "I understand."

Suddenly, the door to the building swung open and hit the wall, revealing an angry-looking boss. "I-I'm coming boss! Sorry to make you wait!" The man in front of Lucy yelled, his voice monotone once again. Weird. She thought. It must be the way the boss' cronies have to talk.

Snapping out of her thoughts, Lucy realized she still had one more question. "Where can I find the president?"

The nice hooded man talked quickly, edging slowly towards his impatient boss. "I don't know for sure. The president's always moving around and going to meetings. I don't much about her at all. Actually, I've never even seen her before. She also hasn't told her name to anybody yet, but she gave us her codename instead:

Twinkle."

Hello everybody! :D Sorry, it took me this long to update, but I've finally had some inspiration today! I know there are still a lot of unanswered questions, but in time, they will all be answered (so please be patient). Also, thank you for all the reviews! It really keeps me in tune with what you're all feeling. I know that the ending of the last chapter was ridiculous, so I hope you feel a little better about this one. ;P About Natsu and the others, I will probably cover their point of view in the next chapter. I'm not sure when I'll be updating again though, but hopefully, it will be sooner than you think! Until next time, my faithful readers/followers/favoriters~