Chapter Eight~

Month One

"Luce! It's been four hours since we left that creepy lady's house! I'm sooooo hungry!" The fire breather whined. They were in a beautiful town named Hargeon looking for directions when Lucy decided to do a little sight seeing.

"No Natsu, I here this place is homed to this 'Salamander and Celestial Goddess' everyone talks about and I want to see if we can find them! This woman can give me tips on using my keys!" The blond said in a matter-of-fact tone.

The boy groaned in response. If you're looking for these people then why have we been looking at clothes and junk all day? They walked for a couple minutes in silence when a soft grumble came from the girl's stomach.

She looked down to her stomach when realization popped into her head. "Shit! I forgot I had a human inside me!" She frantically stroked her flat stomach. "Oh honey! I'm super sorry! It won't happen again I promise!" She reassured herself and let out a sigh.

"Fine, we can get something to eat. What to you want to eat Natsu?" She asked and realized her dragon slayer was being hauled by an old lady into a restaurant. "Uh Luce I think she wants us to eat here!" He yelped.

Once they were seated a waitress dressed in maid uniform came to their table with hearted eyes. "Hi My name is Mei how may I help you? Everything's on the house!" She said gleefully, and pulled out a notepad and pen.

Before the teen could give his order, Lucy interrupted all to fast.

"Can I get one of everything on the spicy menu?" She asked casually, and handed it to the waitress, "He'll just share what I'm having." The woman frantically wrote on her notepad and took Natsu's menu along with hers.

"Why is everything on the house?" The boy asked with curiousity.

She looked at him and gave him a wide smile. "Because you and your team saved us from another dark guild attack a couple weeks back! It's only right to give the famous Salamander and Celestial Goddess a reward as our gratitude!" She chimed, and walked away.

"Did she just call us the 'Salamander and Celestial Goddess'?" Lucy pondered aloud, and scrunched her eyebrows together, giving it some thought.

"She might be mistaking us for some other people, but who cares, free food!" The boy drooled. "Oh and Lucy, why did you order everything off the spicy food menu? I thought you hated spicy stuff." He asked.

"Probably just pregnancy cravings. At least we know he or she's going to take off after her father." She smiled softly, and gave her stomach another pat.

Once they were finished with their meal, they set off in another part of town. Unknown to them, a shadowed figured lingered on the top of the building they were previously in, holding the old lady who led the two in by her neck.

"Did she eat it?" His hoarse voice hissed, and squeezed her throat a little harder.

"Y-Yes! The shi kurisutaru was implanted into the pink one's stomach!" She rasped, holding onto his hands, begging them to release her. The hands only squished harder against her wrinkly skin, suffocating her.

"You worthless bitch! It was supposed to be out into the blondes! How could you possibly mix that up?!" The woman cried in terror, "I'm sorry! It was an honest mistake!" The anger was boiling inside him. "Now I have to do the dirty work myself! And when I have to do the work, it's going to get messy." He barked, and popped her head off like an exercise ball. Blood decorated the rooftop. The beheaded woman's head slowly landed near his black boot, and dissolved into purple dust, along with her limp body.

As he rubbed her blood onto his shirt, he murmured to himself in disgust. "What am I supposed to do once the crystal gets triggered inside his body? After that, we truly are doomed."

Month Three

It's only been three months, and boy did they go by quickly! They've already settled in a decent house out in the East Forest and Lucy's stomach was starting to show. When her baby bump first expanded, Lucy couldn't help but shed a tear when she saw Natsu already talking to it.

He would tell the growing child various things, from his age to the abnormal color of his hair, and telling their unborn child he hoped it would have his locks.

Though, nowadays he didn't talk to their baby much, and he would always go to the West Forest and burn some trees. Lucy was worried too. She didn't know what was triggering his behavior, but the sudden change wasn't pleasing her. He became more aggravated and more protective of her to the point where she wasn't allowed to leave the house without his supervision.

Today however, was the last straw. Already three months, fourteen days pregnant, she was now yelling at her companion. What was it she was yelling about? The bloody mess he came home as.

"Natsu what the hell?! You're telling me I can't go out, yet you come home looking like you were jumped by more mages! It just pisses me off to say that there are more mages! Are you trying to get killed?!" She screamed, and pushed him into a wall.

As she ranted, he simply gave her an un-amused gaze.

"Are you even listening to me?! Do you ever listen to me? I thought we were in this together! But here you are, coming home a bloody mess, not giving a damn about what I have to say!" She exploded, and broke into tears.

"I-I don't know if I can do this Natsu," She whimpered, "Seeing you coming home like this really scares me. I don't want our baby to grow up with a father who gets into near-death fights everyday. Or worse, not a father at all."

Month Six

It's been a while since that one-sided fight. Something snapped into the dragon slayer that dawned to his realization that he couldn't let his child go fatherless. It was bad enough that he and Lucy no longer had fathers, and he had no intention of continuing that tradition.

He wasn't quite clear on the situation at the time. Sometimes he would feel like something bad was happening to his partner while she was out, and sometimes he thought he stopped hearing a tiny heartbeat inside Lucy's uterus, which scared him even more; if that was possible.

He quit leaving their home to stay with her, since forcing her on house arrest wasn't working. His scars healed within time, which was a good thing, but one thing that bothered him was a red emblem of a phoenix tattooed onto his right arm.

He's been drunk before, and did stupid things, but he would've definitely remembered getting a tattoo on his skin. He tried scrubbing it off various times, but it only proved that it wasn't temporary, and even considered stealing Lucy's make up, hoping that would conceal it.

Luck was sort of on his side when she came rushing into their room one morning panicking about the same phoenix tattoo placed onto her, only pink and on her right hand.

They both agreed that it could've been a spell casted on them, considering that whenever they were out together, people were either scolding them for burning down places, or thanking them for saving them, which totally boggled them both.

Today, was an ordinary day, they were out in the town hand in hand, thinking of baby names for they soon to be born child. Everything was beautiful. Everything was colorful, and birds were chirping, and kids were running round. One thing that had them a little on edge though, was the frightening glances given to the people passing them. It was almost like they were afraid for them.

Being the typical Natsu, he dragged Lucy towards the area all the citizens were directing them too.

Here they were, at the entrance of a magic shop.

"Luce, stay here, I'm gonna go see why all these people are directing us here." He said, and walked into the shop, when a hand caught his wrist.

"I'm going with you." She said firmly.

He yanked his wrist from her grasp, leaving her a slightly surprised. "No you're not. As much as I know you can take care of yourself, you're six months pregnant, and I can't take any chances."

She let a defeated sigh. She wasn't going to argue on that one. He had a point. Her belly looked like she ate a watermelon whole, and it would devastate them both greatly if the baby was harmed in anyway. "Fine, but don't be too long, I'll meet you at the riverside in an hour."

Before they could go their separate ways, something covered both their mouths and hauled them into the building.

Natsu, being the quickest, burned his capture's gag object and through it to the ground. What the hell was that? On the ground, was two decapitated hands.

Well that was fucking gross. He thought. But now wasn't the time to poke it (no matter how much he wanted to), he still had to get Lucy.

He observed his surroundings, which wasn't much except for the little lighting that came from the magic shop door. Igniting his hands, he got a better perspective at what was going on. This place was a dump!

The place was actually bigger than it was on the outside, the glass cases were shattered, little knick-knacks were scattered on the floor, tilted picture frames. Just the typical looking haunted shop if you asked him. Now, onto main priorities.

"Lucy! Where are you?!" He chanted over and over. Waving his hands in various directions and knocking porcelain objects over, he came across a small door that led to her scent under a chest, leading in a spiral staircase.

As he walked down, he saw various blood splatters on the tan, brick walls.

Thank god I have a good sense of smell. He thought to himself. None of this blood was hers, but her scent was getting stronger. That means he's getting closer.

A sudden shriek popped him out of his senses. That was Lucy's scream! If anything happened to her…. Nope. Nothing's going to let anything happen to her, thoughts of such torture that could've happened to her would only rage him further.

He raced down the old staircase and stopped at the sight of the room. It appeared to be an old library. In the center was a stack of piled books. Near the end of the library, he saw some sort of bright blue light coming from the ground. Was it a chanting circle?

Another scream echoed through the walls. "Natsu!"

His instincts told him to call back to her, and tell her he was there, but that wouldn't be helpful. Whoever kidnapped her would find his location and could end up capturing him too. Instead he followed the screams of his name, and he swore every time he died inside. He had to get to her quick, before the screams stopped.

He pushed over a few mountains of books, and found his beloved in the middle of the glowing circle, chained to the ground, looking like a bloody mess.

"Lucy! I'm here!" He screamed, and ran to free her. Instead, he was pushed by an unknown force in the opposite direction, hitting a wall against his back.

She gave him a horrified look, "Natsu! Get out of here! While you still can!" She begged. The blue light from beneath her became brighter, and the blood in her veins were popping out of her body.

"Arugh!" She shrieked, and opened her eyes, which were glowing bright red.

"No! I need to get you out of here!" The boy screamed, and pushed against the blowing winds, and hobbled to his pregnant friend.

Another blood cringing scream came from her, and the circle slowly turned into a midnight black. The forces stopped, the lights dimmed, and Lucy lay limp on her back, gasping for breath.

"Lucy!" The dragon slayer screamed, and rushed over to her body.

No no no no this wasn't happening. He lifted her back in his arms for support, and put his ear to her heart.

It wasn't beating.

In pure shock, he lay her back on the ground and began CPR.

One, two, three. Breathe.

One, two, three. Breathe.

It wasn't working. Why wasn't it working?! He held her pained face in his hands, and began shedding a tear, one by one.

"Don't leave me," He whimpered, "This can't be happening."

"Oh but it is."

Snapped from his mourn fest, he looked around at the new voice. "Who is that?!" He yelled.

A man wearing nothing but black, slowly made himself present through a dark purple mist.

"Don't worry you big baby, she isn't dead. Yet. Her heart's just on, 'pause', as I'll say," He deep voice sent chills down the boy's back, "And even better, the baby isn't harmed either. It's more than fine actually."

Natsu looked up to the man, "What the fuck did you do to her?!"

The man slowly walked over to Lucy, and placed his hand on her pale cheek, stroking the blood from her forehead.

"Nothing really, I asked her some questions, she was stubborn. I don't like stubborn people, so they receive punishment." He said in a deep rasp.

The boy threw his fist in the man's face. "Why the fuck would you do that?!" He screamed.

Rubbing the mark on his masked face, he looked at the dragon slayer. "Well, since we're both down here, where no body can hear, I guess I can give you a little story while your girlfriend heals."

"My name is Jōkā of hell's prison. And I am here, because it is my dying wish to see your offspring covered in Fairy Tail's blood."

A:N/ Okay so here is part one. I really apologize for my absence! You can find the reason for my absence in author's notes of some of my more updated stories. I know some people don't like OC's in stories, and don't worry, Jōkā will only appear in this chapter, and next chapter! I myself am not a huge fan of OC's so I try to use them as less as possible. I was rereading some of my previous chapters and I'm cringing on the inside. I'm sorry you had to live through my awful grammar and rushing scenes. But I am trying to improve!

Next chapter will be the last chapter of the pregnancy side story, then it's back to the main plot! Oh and before I forget, everything will br explained in later chapters, so if something doesn't make sense or if it's just a one time thing, it'll be brought back into the story. I will also get around to updating my other stories, just haven't got to them yet. Thanks for reading!

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Something to look forward to:

Natsu's weird behavior reason, what shi kurisutaru is, and the beginning to a not-so peaceful family!