NaLu: Just Experiments

CHAPTER 27: No Choice

(Wendy's POV)

     I watch Natsu get pushed through the door as he struggles against the guards. The guard holding me sighs and starts to pull me back to my cage. I let him for a while until I see Lucy's face. She's shocked more than anything, but you can also see the fear, confusion, and sadness she's feeling. After all, she did just get kissed by someone who she used to love but then forgot because the person she used to hate replaced him with himself. Whoa...I just confused myself.
Lucy shouldn't have to be confused. I wish she could just remember everything. I wish we could all run away from here and forget this place. No, I don't want us to forget. I've learned that it is never good to forget. Memories make us who we are, and without them, we start to lose ourselves. That's why Lucy needs to remember, because if she doesn't, she might be lost forever.
     "Hey, move it!" the guard barks at me, making me loose my train of thought. He tugs on my arm roughly, trying to push me back into my cage. "No!" I yell, stomping my foot. 'What are you doing?' Gray asks in my head, surprised by the break in my calm attitude. I don't answer him but instead yell, "No! I'm not going back into that cage!" With that, I elbow the guard in his stomach and slam my heel into his toes.
     The guard bends over in pain, giving me an opportunity to punch him right in the nose. It didn't knock him out like a punch from Natsu would, but it still gave him a pretty bad nose bleed. I watch the guard stumble backwards into Gray's cage. Gray smiles, grabbing the guard, spinning him around, and giving a much harder punch to his jaw. The guard groans, stepping back. He sways back and forth, until Erza reaches through her bars and flicks his back, knocking him over with a thud.
     "Whooohooo!!!" I stick my fist into the air. "Good teamwork. Now Wendy, who taught you to do that?" Erza asks me. "Oh...um...Carla." I giggle. Gray's mouth hangs open, "You mean, Carla the exceed? Carla the little white cat who's always telling you to be a lady?" "Yeah, even she agrees that a lady should be able to defend herself." I giggle. I step over to the unconscious guard and search his belt for keys. "Aha!" I exclaim when I find them.
     I walk over to each of their cages and unlock them. Then I stop. "Umm, Lucy?" I ask tentatively. She's standing up in her cage, looking down. "Lucy, come with us." Gray says. Lucy flinches, "How am I supposed to know that you're not lying to me. You saw what Natsu just did." "Lucy, please try to understand. Natsu would never do that by choice. Think, it doesn't add up. If he could open his cage like that the whole time why didn't he do so sooner? His cage must have been unlocked. You started to be confused the day Zayn took you to a special lab for testing. He is tricking you. You have happy memories with us because you really are our friend." Erza tries to reason with her.
"I'm sorry Erza, but I can't believe you." Lucy answers. "So you believe Zayn?" I ask. "No." Lucy says shortly, "Well, yes? It's complicated. I want to believe you, but I look at all the things Zayn has done for me. It's hard for me to believe either of you. What's sad is I'm being lied to either way. I'm going to make an enemy out of a friend either way. I might even break my heart either way." I step back, shocked, "Lucy, do you love Zayn?"
"I don't know. I know he loves me, and I think if I knew I could trust him, I would probably love him back. And yet....Natsu has a strange element to him that gives me butterflies. I think if I knew he was really my friend, I might fall for him." Lucy replies sadly, "Right now, my whole life hinges on whether you're my friends or he is. If Zayn is my real friend, I will fall in love with him, let him protect me, and avoid you at all costs. Yet if you guys are my real friends, I will fall in love with Natsu, let him protect me, and avoid Zayn at all costs."
Poor Lucy. "We never said your decision was easy. We simply want you to make the right choice." Gray says. "And if I don't, I'll be living a lie for the rest of my life and fall in love with a man I should be running from." Lucy grunts. A moment of silence fills the air, until I ask, "So are you coming with us or not?" Lucy doesn't respond. "Hmmm, I didn't want to do this, but if you can't decide in the next five minutes, we are gonna have to bring you with us by force," Erza sighs.
Lucy looks up, shocked, "What? I have five minutes to decide the biggest decision of my life or your gonna make the decision for me?" Gray has a humorless chuckle, "Well, to be honest, I don't think we'll be able to leave you here, so the decision was already made for you." "Then why did you even ask?" Lucy asks. "Because we wanted you to make the decision for yourself and prove to us that the real Lucy is still in there somewhere." I tell Lucy, gently. "However, if she's been buried to deep under too many lies, we have no choice but to bring you with us by force," Gray concludes.
"Don't you think that's a pretty clear sign for me that you are the people I should be running from?" Lucy asks, irritated. "Lucy, I think this is a pretty clear sign that we are the people you should be running to. We are trying to break you out of an organization that hurts people, that kills people. You can't tell me you haven't heard the screams. Zayn soundproofed your cage so you wouldn't hear them, but when you cracked your cage door open, you heard all of them," Erza tells her.
"Friends are supposed to help their friends out of trouble and protect them from getting back into it, even if they don't realize how much trouble they're in. Lucy, Zayn is manipulating your memories to get you to be afraid of your closest friends. He's told you truths, but compared to all the lies he had piled around it....you can't trust him. Some of the things he said we lied to you about, we had no clue were true. We were kept in the dark just as much as you were," Gray adds.
"Lucy, please. Try to remember us. We want you to choose us, but if you are too lost to see truth, we will have to do the right thing and bring you with us. We love you Lucy, especially Natsu. I don't know how much longer his heart can see you fall in love with another man." I conclude, sadly. Lucy has tears rolling down her face. "I'm sorry....I'm so sorry....I just don't know what's real. My heart is being pulled in so many directions that I think it might tear. I want to come with you, but Zayn said he was going to take me home in an hour," Lucy sniffles.
"I want to see my father and let him hold me. I want to walk the path my mother walked through our gardens. I want to see my room just one more time," Lucy cries. Oh no. This is worse than I thought. I look at Lucy to say something when I see it. Something flies through the air and lands in her neck. "Lucy!" I scream. "Sssssshhhhh!" Erza tells me. I look back at Lucy and see her neck. It's a tranquilizer dart. I stare at Erza and see a tranquilizer gun in her hand.
"We had no choice," Erza tells me, "Think about it. The Heartfilia family had trillions of dollars and their own private armed force. If the only heir to the estate had been kidnapped, she would certainly be found. It would be impossible for Lucy to still be here. Unless..." Erza looks at me, waiting for me to figure it out. I gasp, "Jude Heartfilia was in on it. Lucy was probably handed to Zayn. He sold his own daughter. Mr. Heartfilia probably knew exactly where Lucy was this whole time."
Just when she finds out she has a family out there, she learns that he sold her to the people she's running from. He's not her father, a father wouldn't do that. "Now imagine what would have happened if Lucy was returned to her dear old dad." Erza tells me. "She would be harder to reach than ever. She would be trapped in a cage far worse than this one, and she wouldn't even realize it." Gray answers for me.
We unlock Lucy's cage and Erza picks her up, bridal style. I look at her sleeping face, and I can't help but sigh. When did the world become so complicated? We stand in a line, facing the door. "Are you ready?" Erza asks. "Yeah." I answer. "It's gonna be a lot harder than it was last time." "I know, but it's gonna be a lot harder for them to stop us." I answer, confident. "Alright, on the count of three." Erza says, "Three.... Two.....One!"
We run through the doors, ready to face anything. As long as we have each other, I know we'll be fine. This one's for you Lucy!

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Hello again!
Thank you for reading my book! I'm very happy because it's almost over!!! I can't wait to start working on the sequel. I've decided I'm not gonna tell you the title for the sequel until the very last chapter of this one. Sorry! I said the title again in this chapter if you want to test your theory. Thank you guys so much! I'll update soon! Remember to comment!
-Blondie4243