Hi all. I realized the last chapter was a bit short, so I here's an attempted longer one XD

Thanks x 1,000,000,000 to all the people who reviewed: blissfulme, Serena Heartfilia, GoldenRoseTanya, Madeline-chan09, Dunyahu and Lost Idea Alchemist!

Also, thanks to everyone who favorites, and whoever takes the time to read this!

Chapter 7- The Pendulum Broke

Magnolia Hospital.

There wasn't even a guild left to base operations. Most of the guild was still unconscious, but some resilient people, (ahem, Natsu) were awake and really pissed. The guild was housed in a large room, lined with beds of unconscious mages.

"Let me at them damnit!" Said fire mage yelled, comical flames coming from his mouth.

"Calm down Natsu! How are you all so injured! We saw you disappear for only a few minutes! There are scars, ones that would take months to leave!" Levy shouted.

"W-what're you talking about?! We've been gone and tortured for like... 4 months?! D-din't you guys notice we were gone? Like, the guild should have been totally empty!" The fire mage sputtered, looking rather scared.

"Master!" Freed said running up to the mini-wizard saint, "All the guild members except Lucy Heartfilia are accounted for."

"Lu-chan is missing?" Levy asked shaking slightly.

"I was going to proceed with a memory extraction to see what happened." The green-haired mage said.

"Proceed." Master said in a grave tone. Gildarts was seen in the background tying bandages and hitting on some of the female nurses, then being slapped.

Freed ran around tapping all the mage's heads, leaving runes on each. When he was finished, a large screen appeared in the center of the room, and started playing the collective memories.

It seemed to be the day master was on his mission as Levy recalled. Gildarts hadn't returned from his S-Class mission yet, and the Raijinshuu seemed to be on a mission with Laxus. Levy was out shopping. So in all, the four mages that witnessed the explosion weren't present.

Suddenly, black glowing runes, the very same that were used to obliterate the guild appeared under the feet of all the mages present. Freed identified the to say "Fall."

And sure enough, they fell into the magic circles. The picture changed.

What seemed to be multiple people waking up, the first thing in sight was hooded figures in black robes.

"Mm... they're going to be here for a while... So why not make the most of it?" One
of the hooded figures said.

"Just don't kill them." A passive voice said, a metallic ring to it.

"Let me go! What the hell are you doing with us?!" A very Natsu-like response was emitted. The guild members seemed to be isolated into different rooms.

The next scenes were plain horrifying. Torture, blood, screams, and hooded figures was all the screen showed for the next five minutes. To save them from watching all of it, Freed sped up the showing time. By the end of the film, Freed said the time spent was about four months.

"How is this possible? They were just here yesterday!" Levy said, verge of tears. Gildarts, (with two slap marks on each cheek) looked like he could murder someone.

"This must be reported to the magic council. A whole entire guild, our guild, of over 50 mages was tortured for more than four months and no one noticed. Other guilds may be targeted." Master said, gritting his teeth. His brats, his children were tortured, and for so damn long. And he hadn't even noticed they were gone.

The rest of the day was spent with white rooms, and mages waking up, some completely terrified. It took some a full hour to understand that they weren't being tortured anymore.

"How is it possible that I let this happen! Someone punch me!" Erza deadpanned, suddenly standing up. As she did, her gut wound re-opened.

"We're not going to do that Erza..." Gray sweatdropped. He was as pissed as everyone else, but at the same time, he was as hurt too.

During the hours that people were getting up, Makarov and Gildarts managed to identify a few things.

1. Time of torture was aprox. 4 months
2. All tortures/jailers wore hoods of black color
3. Commonly used names were Hex, Satan, and Creator 4. Natsu was now devouring everything in sight due to mal-nutrition

Around the 7th hour at the hospital, almost everyone was awake and groaning. Many had been shocked at the loss of the guild, and all has sustained injuries so that they couldn't move too well. Master had gone off to the Magic council and left Gildarts in charge. (Who had mysteriously disappeared as well.)

Wendy, being one of the fastest to recover was at that point running around healing injuries. Porlyusica had come down from her house in the woods to help heal mages.

"Lucy's missing?" Erza asked, frowning. Levy had just informed her.

"They said something about her being 'The Sacred Shine'. I was just about to research it, but I was wondering if you guys knew." The bluenette replied.

"They beat me up majority while I was unconscious. I do not know." Titania said, grimacing slightly.

"Lucy's missing?" Natsu asked, hobbling over. The loss of his partner worried him.

"We can't afford to look for her now, not with everyone injured here. We have to hope she's alright somewhere." Levy said, looking dejected at the loss of her best friend.

Somewhere.

"The vitals have stabilized, but what the heck happened? And why couldn't we sense them?" Aki said anxiously."

"What happened?" Lucy said, just waking up. A small yawn was emitted. She got up and stretched.
Blade was sequently chasing Midori as she laughed and waved his sword at him. The blonde mage laughed at their antics. Aki, Kin and Runen were discussing something in deep thought.

"Welcome back." Aki said with a small smile. Lucy walked over and sat down.

"What's going on? Did something happen?" She asked, noticing the serious expressions.

The three looked at each other uneasily. Kin spoke up. "The other guardians, though we do not know how, seem to sustain great injuries, possible results of extended periods of torture. We only just sensed it now."

"Tor...ture?" Lucy asked nervously.

'Why should I care?' She thought, 'They hurt me... But at the same time, they're my family, I can't not care.'

"How long?"

"Four months judging on injury basis."

This shocked her, beyond whatever feelings she had as of current. Subconsciously, she rubbed her guild mark. As much as she may have hurt, four months. Four months of torture to her family.

"I-I need to go back. Levy, Natsu, Erza, Gray, Gajeel, Mira, Master... I need to see them." Lucy said shakily.

"I know you want to go, but your powers have awakened. You'll be a target, and the damn creator kills anyone in her way. Your friends will be more of a liability." Aki said, putting her hand on Lucy's shoulder.

"B-But I-I need to go... What if... What if something happened... I wasn't there..."

And for the first time in a long time, Lucy cried.

Meh; slightly longer-ish. Well, I didn't wait a full month to update. State exams, finals, concerts, and tests are seriously annoying. I hope you liked it! Review please!