The Bond 3

Chapter 12

      Rushing to Magnolia as fast as they could. Lucy charged through the doors with Happy in her arms while Gray and Erza went to the guild. "Wendy, Carla!" she called desperate. They came running as Carla yelled "Happy!" freaked out as the girls grabbed him quickly from Lucy's arms and ran him back to a room. Lucy followed right behind not bothering to ask permission. Wendy began healing him once Carla laid him down. 

"What happened" she asked facing Lucy. "He was attacked" she answered timidly. "I can see that clear enough, attacked by who!" "It was.." Lucy hesitated answering. As upset as she was, Carla could see how guilty Lucy felt just from looking at her , she also saw the start of tears forming in the corners of Lucy's eyes. 

Softening her face, she calmly asked Lucy again what happened. Knowing she had to give an answer this time, she said as clear as she could without trying to crack " It..was Natsu". The sad looks on Wendy's and Carla's faces told her they weren't surprised given they heard the news of what happened to him. 

Happy popped up a second later after Wendy finished. The first thing Happy saw was Lucy's attempt at keeping her face straight. " Lucy I'm okay, see look at me" he said trying to be cheery. She couldn't help but put a tiny grin on her face as Happy went "There you go" with a smile. He jumped into her arms and Lucy hugged him tight. "That wasn't him" he whispered into her ear. "Okay?" he said looking her right in the face.

She nodded her head understanding. "Let's go to the guild hall alright Lucy?" he asked. She muttered yes as Happy said thank you to Wendy and Carla as they left. 

"Poor Lucy" thought Carla and Wendy feeling deeply heartbroken for her. Lucy had gone quiet as she held Happy walking to the guild hall. Upon entering Fairy Tail, she heard everyone fretting over what to do given what Erza and Gray had just told them. 

 She tried to slip by unnoticed, but everyone quieted down once they saw her. She walked right on by everyone including Erza and Gray without a word and sat in a corner. Happy got down from her arms and sat on her feet as Lucy curled herself up putting her head on her knees not wanting to face anyone. 

 Nobody said anything to her but Nashi seeing her come in , she walked herself slowly over. "Mommy" she said quietly. Lucy grabbed Nashi's hand but did not lift her head up. After a few more minutes of silence, as she was lifting her head up, she said gloomy " He needs to die". 

 A lot of them but not everyone looked shocked hearing her say that. "Your all thinking it. It's written all over your faces! .I'm just the one with the nerve to say it" said Lucy. "Lucy..." "NO!" she snapped feeling fed up as she stood herself up. "HE ATTACKED HAPPY! NATSU WOULD NOT DO THAT" she shouted getting everyone's full attention.

She slammed her hand on the table nearest to her and aggressively said "The one who attacked Happy, who traumatized my child, that was not Natsu. The man I married would never harm any of us or slaughter hundreds of people!!. This thing walking around in his body has mutilated and tortured people. Natsu, he...he would never do that" Her voice was starting to lose the aggression as her façade shield started to crack. 

"He..has never frightened me ever, this demon dragon or whatever he is, he...he had me scared for my life" she confessed as the tears started falling. " This thing was right." She paused making everyone nervous with what she was going to say. 

Lucy lifted her head straight up and teary eyed or not, she bluntly said " Natsu is dead" " Gray, did you ever think of using your demon slayer magic on him?" asked Makarov. " I never gave it a thought, I never thought I would have too" answered Gray honestly. 

 " Lucy, what do you want us to do?" Erza asked candid. "We find him..and put an end to this" replied Lucy. Happy perched himself on Lucy's shoulder as she grabbed Nashi's hand and started walking out before Gray called her to stop. As she turned to look at him ,he said "why don't you guys stay at my place for now..I know it cant be easy staying at your house right now" he said sadly. 

 Lucy turned to Happy for approval as he shook his head yes for which she turned back towards Gray and said "thank you" softly as they left. " You say that Lucy but I'm not so sure it's going to be that easy when you face him" thought Erza uneasy as she watched Lucy walk away. "You still love him...you never said you didn't"

In the days that followed, they gathered reports and the job requests kept piling up. The reports stated brutal murders, a black wing demon, a cold blooded murderer there was no end to the details they received. Every time someone went to check on a lead, he was already gone but not without leaving a place in ruins before he left. 

Nobody really knew where to look because Lucy and the others still had no memory of how to get there. It tore Lucy apart inside reading everything that this thing had done to all these people. She put on a face every day as she walked into the guild to help but her teammates saw right through it. Staying at Gray's place helped keep some of the memories away that would come to Lucy and Happy's mind's but it didn't keep everything away. 

Happy would hear her muffled crying at night but did not say anything. He knew she didn't want people to hear what they probably already knew. He knew her almost as well as Natsu did and he knew when she was trying to put up an act to hide her feelings. She was sifting through reports when she came across one that grabbed her attention. A family was ripped to pieces and then their village was burnt to the ground along with everyone else in it. 

 Dropping the report, she ran for the doors. "I can't , I can't do this" she cried running past everyone and going right out the doors. "Lucy , wait!" yelled Happy as he went after her. Erza and Gray kept Nashi there and got everyone back to work. This wasn't a time for the two of them to go after her. "Lucy" Happy called out again trying to find her. 

 He ran until he found her huddled under a tree squeezing Natsu's scarf around her neck and soaking it with tears. "Lucy" he said softly as he came over. " He..tore them apart Happy." He crawled into her lap and hugged her as she buried her face into his scarf again. "This isn't him Lucy" he told her. 

Sniffling ,she said "I know Happy" "It's been almost a month, I know he needs to go but are you going to be able to do it when you see him face to face" She nodded her head yes when he said "you called it he" "huh?' "This whole time when you bring him up, you've been calling him a thing or an it, you just said he" Her eyes widened as she realized he was right. She put her hands to her head as she started to freak out some. 

" You still love him Lucy, there isn't anything wrong with that" " Whether I love him or not, he needs to be stopped Happy." Happy saw the conflicting emotion in her eyes and hugged her again as they just sat there under the tree.