The Princess and the Commoner

Chapter 4: Betrayed

Gray groaned as he threw Natsu into the dark cell. Natsu coughed up blood and looked at Gray in disbelief. 

"Gray? What are you doing?" Gray frowned and put his hand up aimed at Natsu, 

"Ice Make Lance." Ice daggers shot out of Gray's hand and struck Natsu which caused him to cry out in pain. "I just became your friend so that I could get close to you with your guard down. My goal the whole time was to catch you Natsu Dragneel." Natsu's eyes widened in shock and he coughed violently. Gray laughed and walked out of the cellar where Natsu was being held. 

~*~

Lucy heard someone in pain coming from the cellar on the bottom floor of the castle. 

"That sounds familiar..." Lucy got up out of bed and walked down the many flights of stairs leading to the cellar. She made her way to the bottom floor, but before she was able to get to the bottom, she heard someone talking. Lucy went into one of her hiding spots on the stairs and listened, 

"You are such an idiot. Did you really think that you could make a friend with someone that was trying so hard to catch you?!" Lucy heard someone cough and groan, 

"I trusted you Gray...I wasn't doing anything to hurt the kingdom..." 

"Ice Make Lance!" There was a cry of pain, "You were stealing the people's food! That is unacceptable! I'll leave you here. You'd better be prepared for your execution in 2 days Natsu. There's no getting out of it this time." 

"W-what about Lucy...?" Lucy's eyes widened in surprise and she heard Gray growl. There were heavy footsteps and she heard Gray slap Natsu, "The princess has no time for scum like you. You will never speak her name, she is the princess and you will address her that way!" There was the slam of the cell door on the frame and Gray stalked passed her up the stairs. But she was too well hidden and he was too angry to notice her. Lucy sighed and walked the rest of the way down the stairs. She looked around for the familiar pink head of hair and gasped when she saw Natsu. He was covered in gashes and he was unconscious on the ground in a pool of his own blood. 

"Natsu!" Lucy ran up to his limp body and tried waking him up, "Natsu? Are you ok?" Natsu groaned but did not open his eyes. "Please! Natsu you need to get up..." Lucy looked at Natsu's face in shock. "W-why do I care for him so much...?" Lucy looked at Natsu's face more closely and remembered something her mother told her when she was a child, 

...

"Lucy, time to go to bed sweetheart." Lucy frowned and crossed her arms, 

"Tell me a story first mommy!" Layla sighed slightly and smiled at her young daughter, 

"All right fine. You win Lucy!" Lucy jumped around in joy and they both headed towards Lucy's grand bedroom. Layla pulled a chair up to Lucy's bed and looked at her daughter with joy in her eyes, 

"Now listen Lucy, this is a true story. More like a legend from our ancestors." Lucy nodded and got comfortable in her bed, "Over 400 years ago, there was a prophecy that a fire dragon and a universe princess would save the world from the terrible evil that would plague the land." Lucy looked at her mother in wonder and smiled, 

"What was the great evil?" Layla put her hand to her chin in thought, 

"It was Acnologia the Black Dragon and the Black Wizard Zeref." Lucy laughed and Layla looked at her, 

"Are bad guys favorite color black?" Lucy kept laughing and after a while, Layla joined in. 

...

Lucy shook her head and looked back at Natsu, "I wonder..." Natsu groaned and coughed violently. Lucy put her hand on his head to check for his temperature. But when she touched him, she cried out and pulled her hand away from him, "That's not good...He's really burning up..." 

"Is there any way that you can get the band off?" Natsu shook his head,

"No. The only way to get it off is if the person wearing it is killed. And it is slowly draining my life force which will kill me in about a year or two." 

Lucy's eyes widened in shock as she remembered what Natsu had said about the band around his wrist. She grabbed the arm that had the band and looked at it closely. It was bright red and looked like it was burning Natsu's skin. Lucy had to drop his arm because now his whole body was starting to heat up. 

"Natsu..." Lucy reached in her dress pocket and pulled out a golden key with an arrow tip at the end, "Please let this work..." Lucy looked at Natsu then at the key, "Open, gate of the archer! Sagittarius!" There was a flash of white light and a man with a horse suit and bow appeared in front of Lucy. 

"Yes miss Lucy?" Lucy grabbed Natsu's arm again and pointed at the band wrapped around his wrist, 

"Can you break this Sagittarius? It needs to come off as soon as possible." Sagittarius looked down at Natsu and nodded his head, 

"Yes I think I can." Sagittarius grabbed an arrow and pulled his bow string tight, aimed at Natsu's wrist. He let the arrow loose and it struck Natsu's wrist. The band snapped in half and fell to the floor. Lucy looked at Natsu's face and saw that he looked better than before. But he still looked like he was in pain, probably from the wounds Gray gave him. 

"Natsu?" Lucy slightly shook Natsu to wake him up be he wasn't moving, "Natsu, please. You need to wake up. We need to get out of the castle." 

"Come on! We need to get to his cell. Someone's down there!" Lucy's eyes widened in horror, they found her... "Sagittarius, I need you to blast open the wall and take me and Natsu out of here!" Sagittarius nodded and blasted open the wall with one of his arrows. He turned over to Natsu and Lucy and frowned slightly, 

"Are you sure you want to do this Lucy? You and this boy will be on the bad side of the kingdom for the rest of your lives." Lucy nodded and Sagittarius smiled and picked up Natsu and reached out for Lucy's hand, "Then let's go." Lucy nodded and grabbed Sagittarius's hand. 

"Yeah. Let's get out of here."