Kon'nichiwa, minna-san! ♥ Gah; first of all, let me say thank you for 500 followers... c': I LOVE YOU GUYS. Ahah, I cried of happiness when I saw that! ;w; ♥ Not only that, but the next day I saw I had gotten six followers added to that just over the night! ;o; You guys are insane, wah! c': It truly means a lot to me though, thank you all so much!! Geez...I got school tomorrow, along with a volleyball game. Sorry, but now that school's about to re-start, I have to focus on more grades than writing. :c Which sucks! I hope I can update a lot still, though... Anyways, I dedicate this chapter to darkvengeance9. c: I hope you all enjoy this chapter, and until next time, everyone~! ♥
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"I can't express my thanks enough..." Deane replied, handing Lucy the payment. "Now I can go back into business without having to worry!"
Lucy smiled down at him. "I'm glad we were able to help you. Erza's turning in the thief now, and should be back shortly."
Deane nodded. "I knew I could count on you Fairy Tail mages; thank you."
Lucy sweat-dropped. "Hey, you don't have to keep saying thank you..."
Deane chuckled, and Lucy looked at him in surprise. "As you wish..."
His expresison turned stern. "That injury of yours though; is it dire?"
Lucy subconsciously pressed her palm to her right side. "No, not anymore. It's just a little sore, is all; it could've been a lot worse, really..."
"Good thing it wasn't." Deane agreed, his arms crossed as he stood in his doorway.
Lucy stopped, but then nodded when she realized he was right. "Yeah."
"Oi, Lucy! Hurry it up; Erza's back, so let's go home!"
Lucy glanced over her shoulder to look at Natsu. "Coming!" She turned back to Deane. "It was nice meeting you." Lucy stepped off the porch, backing up.
Deane nodded, smiling. "You too, Fairy Tail. Give your guild master a thank you for me."
"Will do!"
Turning back around, Lucy half jogged, half walked over to her friends. They were waiting for her at the same time Erza and Gray walked to them, and they all turned to Lucy.
"Are you ready, Lucy?" Erza asked.
Lucy nodded. "Mm hm! And I've got the payment right here!" She exclaimed as she lifted up the tote bag.
"Good. We'll split it when we get back." Erza replied, and they all turned to start walking off. The sun was setting over the mountains as the evening started becoming the night, and as Team Natsu walked down the dirt road and past the houses, a cold breeze set in.
"Wouldn't it be a good idea to stay at a hotel?" Wendy asked after a while, Charle in her arms.
Erza glanced behind her amusedly. "Where did you think we were going? There isn't a hotel in this town, but there is in the next one over. It'll only take half an hour to get there; we'll stop and rest there and continue in the morning."
"Ah, I see!" Wendy exclaimed, understanding.
Natsu noticed Lucy's silence, and glanced at her from the side. She was looking at the ground, looking like she was lost in thought as a strained expression crossed her face.
"Oi, what's the matter Luce?" Natsu asked, leaning forward.
Lucy flinched, breaking from her reverie. "Eh? Oh, nothing; j-just thinking!"
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By the time they made it to the hotel in the next city over, Lucy was exhausted. Even though she hadn't done as much as her fellow friends had, the injury seemed to wipe her out a little. Not only that, but the...weird...experience she had back at the entrance to the woods was running through her mind over and over again. As she along with her friends walked through the city of Nell, Lucy found herself lagging behind as her friends didn't take notice.
Lucy didn't pay attention to the buildings or the alleyways as they walked by, the sun gone and the night sky shining above them. Even this late, people were still scurrying around, full of activity. The town was lit up like a christmas tree; even the air had decorative magic lights floating in the air above their heads. Instead, Lucy felt herself looking at the ground as she remembered the thing she had saw back at Deane's home.
Lucy shook her head vigorously, clenching her eyes shut tightly.
Quit thinking about this. She told herself. Virel is gone. I defeated him; Virel's gone. Astarot even confirmed it!
Sighing, Lucy felt idiotic for dwelling on the subject. She flinched suddenly, realizing she had stopped walking without noticing. Her friends were a ways away, and Lucy exclaimed loudly in surprise. Jogging, Lucy started to make her way back to her friends, feeling silly for standing in place. Although...in the back of Lucy's mind, she seemed more suspicious than she realized.
As Lucy kept jogging, a figure she didn't really pay attention to bumped into her shoulder, making Lucy stumble.
"Wah!" Lucy exclaimed, looking behind her in shock at the man she had ran into.
She was expecting a look of apology on the stranger's face, but met something else entirely.
Virel.
Gasping, Lucy lost her balance and toppled to the ground, landing on her butt. Staring wide eyed and fearful up at him, Lucy couldn't believe what she was seeing. Virel turned, as if recognizing Lucy, and smirked with an evil smile.
No way! Lucy exclaimed through her mind. H-He can't be here!
His familiar jet black hair peaked out from his black silver-lined cloak, and Lucy recognized the symbols on his face as from before.
Virel's eyes flashed red.
It was at that time that Natsu decided to look back, realizing Lucy wasn't near him.
The people walked past Lucy as if nothing was happening; Lucy couldn't break the stare she had with Virel. She was too scared to move her gaze from Virel's sharp and cold eyes. Lucy's breath had suddenly froze in her throat, and she felt the same cold chill run through the area like earlier that day. But, it didn't seem to affect the people around her as they continued walking, giving her weird glances as she continued to sit on the cobble-stoned street, frozen in shock.
Virel sneered, his cloak flapping in the wind as he started to move his arm. Lucy didn't dare move as Virel reached out towards her, his hand visible in the moonlight.
His mouth opened, and he was about to say something.
A hand clamped down on Lucy's shoulder, and she gasped, shying away from whoever it was with fear. It was only when she looked twice did she realize who it was.
"Are you alright, Luce?" Natsu asked, concerned.
Lucy glanced back at the spot Virel was, but was shocked to see he had disappeared.
Natsu was slightly startled to have seen Lucy move away from him when he put his hand on her shoulder. And when Lucy had looked at Natsu, she had looked...petrified.
Virel was gone? Lucy couldn't understand this. Had he even been there at all? What had just happened?
Lucy turned back to Natsu, her eyes shaking. "Natsu, you didn't see...?"
Natsu blinked. "See what?"
Lucy, confused and a little more than startled, stood. Staring at the spot Virel had once stood - which was now flooded with people - Lucy swallowed stressfully.
Slowly, Lucy shook her head. "N-Nevermind. Let's go..."
Before Natsu could say anything, Lucy was pushing her way through the crowd, her hands shaking. Natsu watched her go, but then followed shortly after, his expression suspicious.
All in my head... Lucy thought, meeting up with the others.
She turned to look back behind her before entering the hotel doors after her friends.
Yeah right.
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Lucy hadn't gotten much sleep that night. So when she and her friends gathered together and got on the train back to Magnolia, Lucy felt like she could fall asleep right in the seat. Natsu was sitting beside her again, but he had given up on trying to be strong and had asked Wendy for a treatment to hold his motion sickness at bay. Now, he was just sitting there, his eyes closed. Wendy, Charle, and Happy were in front of them, while Erza and Gray were, once again, in the seats next to Lucy.
Lucy leaned her head against the window, the feeling of the cold glass against her temple relieving. Her eye-lids were heavy, and Lucy couldn't stay awake properly. She kept slipping in and out of consciousness, jerking awake once and awhile after about five minutes. Finally, giving up, Lucy decided to go to sleep, too sleepy to realize that Natsu's hand and her hand were touching.
As Lucy fell into the dark void known as sleep, she was sucked in instantly; a dream soon took over.
Lucy should have been surprised to see Virel as the first image, but for some reason, she was not. As Lucy stood through the black void and watched Virel, a breeze settle in around them. Virel looked at her solemnly, and Lucy's expression was slow; unaffected. She found she couldn't speak, either. Though, it wasn't like she wanted to.
The true chill set in when Virel smirked at her, his eyes glowing red.
A familiar red.
Lucy's eyes widened as a new figure appeared beside Virel, as if they were Virel's senior. But, as the black smog revealed the person, Lucy found her eyes widening in shock.
Zeref.
Lucy stared in surprise as Zeref stood beside Virel, as if they were aquaintances. As the wind blew again, Lucy blinked and suddenly found herself in a different place, this one more identified. Virel and Zeref were gone, and Lucy looked out to see she was walking on water, in the middle of nowhere. The sky was red, and the clouds were stained.
That's when she heard the voices.
"Lucy!"
"What are you trying to do, ya bastard?!"
"Give her back!"
"I'll finally make myself worthy."
"If only you lived long enough to see her death. That is, if you even cared about her in the first place."
"I want to go. I want to leave this nightmare."
All the voices rang through her mind quickly, leaving it too difficult to distinguish whose voice was whose. But Lucy was certain of one thing; something was coming, and it was going to affect herself and Fairy Tail like never before.
Lucy suddenly clutched her heart, feeling a sensation rush through her body.
"Lucy!"
Lucy's eyes shot open, and she was staring up at the sky. However, right after, Natsu's face came into view.
"Na..tsu?" Lucy asked, sitting up as she rubbed her head.
"Are you alright?"
Lucy looked at him. "What do you mean?"
The dream suddenly flashed through Lucy's mind, and she froze, her eyes widening.
Natsu leaned forward, determined. "I was carrying you out of the train when you started clutching onto my vest really tightly. I couldn't make you let go."
Lucy looked around, seeing that she was sitting on a bench at the familiar station of Magnolia.
"Oi, what's goin' on?"
Lucy looked back at Natsu, and she sighed.
"I don't know."
.
.
.
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What's going on? Why is Virel reappearing in Lucy's dreams, and more importantly, with Zeref?!
Find out what happens next in Chapter 5: The Decision Made!