Hello, minna! ♥
AHHH, again! Sorry about a sloppy written chapter, and not to mention a late one! It's just everytime I'm about to write, school's like "lol no".
But enjoy this chapter! ^^
//тнeвιѕcυιтqυeen♥
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Lucy found herself in darkness. Actually, she could see clearly in the darkness because bright stars were shining, just like in space. She wasn't standing on anything, just as there were nothing besides of her, nor on top of her.
Where am I? Lucy asked, but sound didn't come out of her mouth. Suddenly all that happened flashed back at her, and she was left shocked.
That's right. She thought, sadly. I'm dead. Zeref killed me. Natsu... Happy... Erza.... Gray.... Levy, Juvia, Gajeel, Wendy... Gomenesai...
She tried yelling out, but sound still didn't occur. She couldn't move her limbs either. Only stand there, looking into the infinity, moving her eyes slightly. Her eyes were stinging, yet tears wouldn't fall. Was this how she should spend her eternity?
Suddenly a bright light appeared, and Lucy would've covered her eyes, if she could. The light glowed for about a minute until 14 figures stepped out of the light. Her... spirits!
Minna...! Lucy exclaimed in her head, her eyes wide. She would try reaching them, but her body still didn't stir.
A familiar spirit stepped forward. "Lucy," Loke said, smiling, holding a hand on her shoulder. "Let me fix that for you." The hand on her shoulder began glowing, and just a moment later she could move again.
"Loke, what's going on?" Lucy asked, confused. It wasn't Loke who answered, but the angry mermaid-looking woman.
"We're in the spirit world, brat." Aquarius muttered, leaning against Scorpio. How rude... Lucy thought.
"We are!" Scorpio exclaimed, lifting a fist to the air. "We are your spirits, after all, so we can follow you in here!"
"B-But why am I here?" Lucy asked. "I'm dead. How can I talk to you guys? You are still alive!"
"Princess, so are you," Virgo said, stepping closer to Lucy. "Loke and I broke through just in time to do a spell that... how should I put it? Caught your life? So basically, your body is in a mindless coma, right now, and your soul is in here." Lucy was left dumbfounded, but also heart warmed.
"Mooo! That's why you could neither talk or move your pretty body!" Taurus exclaimed, lifting his axe in the air. What a pervert... Lucy thought, sweatdropping.
"The spirit world doesn't support souls, you see," Loke said, adjusting his glasses. "We have a little... trouble with the Spirit King, but I think he's okay now. He would never leave his old friend behind."
Lucy didn't really know, whom he was talking about, but she just nodded, and sighed sadly. Another memory that se would never get back now. Elimar had simply just dropped the jar with her memories in, without thinking further.
Loke giggled over her frowned, placing his hand on her shoulder, sympathetically. "Lucy, that's the other thing," he said, his face suddenly turned serious. "We got your memories too."
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Slowly Lucy returned to her consciousness. She couldn't open her eyes, but her hearing were returning little after little.
"-of course she will-" Lucy heard. It sounded like Gray, but she wasn't sure.
"How can you be so sure about that?" this couldn't be mistaken. It was a panick Natsu. Lucy wanted to tell him that she was alright, but she still couldn't stir.
The sense of touch was slowly retuning too, and Lucy could feel the cold floor against her naked back. She hoped it was only the back that was naked...
"-you two stop your bickering?!" And angry female voice exclaimed, probably Erza. "-wakes up when she wakes up!"
Everything was like a mumbling, even though it became louder as time went by.
"Lucy-san..." Wendy said, sympathetic. Lucy could now hear clearly, so she could now distinguish between her friends. This was Wendy. There was no doubt in that.
"You have done you best, Wendy," Carla assured her, motherly. "Now all we can do is wait. Remember, Loke and Virgo took her soul to the spirit world. It can take some time, because the time is different there."
"Yes, Carla is right," another voice said. It was... Levy...chan! "We experienced that when we were in the spirit world!"
"I'm truly sorry about Elimar," A voice said. Delora? Lucy was nearly sure about that. "About her memories I mean. I didn't think that he'd... you know... turn dark."
Someone sighed. "It's not your fault," Erza exclaimed, something metallic sounding in the background. "It wasn't your responsibility to keep him clean. And... I'm sorry about... ehm... Haichi."
A sad chuckle sounded. "She's going to be fine," Delora said. "She's a strong girl, she's gonna come around. Same with Lucy, I'm sure of that!"
"Hai," Erza said. "I'm sure of that too."
There was a short silence where only Natsu and Gray's fighting could be heard in the distance.
"If I can ask about something personal," Erza said, probably to Delora again. "What... relationship does you and Haichi have." The distant fighting stopped, and it sounded like all the attention was turned to Delora.
Delora let out a sad chuckle. "We're lovers," Delora said, patting someone's hair. Haichi, Lucy guessed. "We've been that for years now."
Without hesitating Erza answered: "Well, then I'm even more sorry about her. Again, I'm sure she'll wake up!"
There wasn't spoken another word, but Lucy guessed that Delora had either nodded gratefully or looked sad at Haichi.
Lucy felt her body being moved a bit, and then placed on something soft. What was this familiar smell? This weird comfort? This high body temperature?
"Natsuu~" Happy said, continued with a giggle. "What are you doing with Luche?"
"She's doing this with me all the time in the train," Natsu said like it was obvious. "It comforts me, so maybe it's comforting her too!"
Wait, am I laying on Natsu's lap?! Lucy asked herself in her head. Natsu's right, it feels rather nice... oh, gosh what am I thinking?
"Well, what do you know!" Gray said so you could nearly hear the smirk. "Natsu actually isn't that hopeless after all."
"What do you mean by that, Popsicle?!" Natsu exclaimed, nearly standing up, but then remembered Lucy on his lap.
"Hey," Levy exclaimed. She was close to Lucy, because her voice was rather clear. "I just saw Lucy stir and her eyelids shake!"
It was true. Slowly, all her senses came back at once, in a wave of tingling and numbness. She wanted to move, but her body wasn't ready yet, but her eyes were. Slowly they fluttered open, revealing two big, brown orbs. Confused she gazed around on her surroundings.
They were still in the gray building, she could recognize it. They had apparently hid in an empty corridor, trying to avoid any guards.
"Lucy!" Natsu exclaimed, relieved, his hands placed on both sides of her head. Before she tried to speak, she gazed at her hands that had been skinless last time she checked. Small, nealy invisible pink scars covered her wrists, like an souvenir from this place.
"Lu-chan," Levy exclaimed, tears in the corner of her eyes. "Your okay! I'm so relieved!" Lucy tried to answer, but only small moans came out of her mouth.
"Don't try to speak yet," Carla said, firmly. "You aren't fully recovered yet. In fact... don't try to move yet, just lay there. Please."
With a nod, Lucy let out a sigh, and enjoyed the comfort she got from Natsu's lap. She closed her eyes trying to get some rest as Carla recommended. Her thoughts were swirling around the things Loke had said. She urged to tell the others. The good news and the bad news.
After a while, which seemed to be a couple of minutes, she felt her fingers stir. The paralyzation was finally over and her voice was returning to her throat.
She opened her eyes to be met by Natsu's usual grin.
"I- have something to... tell you guys," Lucy whispered, which caught everybody's attention, even Gajeel who stood and guarded the corridor. "My spirit's... they caught my memories like... they did to my life."
Natsu's eyes widened. "So... you can get your memories back...?"
Lucy shrugged. "It depends," she muttered. "Apparently Elimar knew... what my spirits were capable, so he put a lock on my memories. It's like a password in... an ancient language, that none of them u-understood."
Delora looked up. "So... Elimar... helped us?" she whispered with a hopeful look in her eyes.
"I-I think so," Lucy answered. "But... I have no idea... how to translate it!"
"Maybe Levy can crack the code!" Gray suggested, gesturing to Levy. Gajeel and Erza nodded in agreement, whilst Wendy just clapped her hands cheerfully.
"Yes, I can try," Levy said. She pulled out a pen and a crumpled paper out of her belt bag. "Lu-chan, can you write down the code on this paper?"
Lucy nodded and took the pen. The code seemed to be imprinted in her brain, but she couldn't pronounce it nor understand a single word.
With uneasy hands, Lucy wrote down what Loke had given her. The pencil danced across the paper, in a clumsy and shaky dance. The final result was: "Majhi ghoul mahna kowai no maj li kichi so mi." She handed the paper back to Levy, who skimmed over the paper a few times.
"I've... never seen this language," Levy whispered, clenching the paper tightly. "This is... m-maybe Freed will know, he..." Her blue hair covered her eyes, so no one could see her sad look.
Everybody went silent. Their only hope in this situation couldn't help them. Lucy couldn't hide her disappointment as she followed Levy's move, and covered her eyes with her hair. The heavy silent was broken as Lucy tried to sit up. Everybody tensed as her face contracted in pain.
"What are you doing?" Natsu asked, holding Lucy down. Lucy gave up and let out a gasp as she let herself fall down on Natsu's lap again.
"I... want to... get up," Lucy said, exhausted after her first attempt. "You guys have a machine to destroy, and I can't... lay around here all day."
"Luche, you need to rest!" Happy exclaimed, patting Lucy's shoulder. Lucy looked at him with wide eyes, but gave up her attempt to sit up. It was obvious that she couldn't win a discussion against any of them. Still, Lucy wanted them to go. She wanted them to stop Zeref and his evil plan, and maybe try to turn Elimar back into the light again.
"You guys should... go then," Lucy said, desperation in her eyes. "Please go stop... Zeref and Elimar... for me!"
The others exchanged worried looks. They couldn't just go leaving Lucy, but again... the world depended on them breaking the machine.
"You can go," Delora said, causing Lucy and the other's gaze to turn to her. She was looking at Haichi's unconscious body. "I can watch both Lucy and Haichi at the same time. I won't let anybody hurt the, that's my word."
Erza was about to protest, but a certain white exceed stepped forwards. "I can stay here too," Carla exclaimed, sassily. "And I'm sure Lily should do that too! He's both injured and out of magic."
Lily, who was lying on Gajeel's head, nodded gratefully at Carla, who nodded back.
"I'll stay here too," Wendy exclaimed. "If Lucy needs another healing section. Or Haichi, of course!"
"Well, I guess that's settled," Natsu exclaimed, slamming his fists together. "I hope I get the opportunity to get that bastard back for what he did to Lucy!"
Erza wacked the back of Natsu's head. "Remember the main part of this mission," she reminded, a dark arua surrounding her. "Destroy the machine before you destroy anybody else. Understand?" Natsu just nodded, frightened.
Happy couldn't keep it together anymore. "But... but I want to be with Carla too!" he whined. He then pretended to be overly weak and fell to the ground. "I'm injured and tired too!"
"Don't you want to save the world?" Carla asked, gazing at Happy, who found himself out of words. He then looked away and mumbled something that sounded like a Aye, okay.
Natsu moved Lucy's body and put it down on the ground. Before he turned around, he tossed her hair around a bit and smiled brightly. She blushed a little, but decided to close her eyes to rest a little. The last she heard before she fell asleep was the sound of people running.
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Natsu was ahead of the group. A few steps behind him, Gray ran with Juvia close to his side. It was like after Delora and Haichi attacked, Gray had been afraid of loosing Juvia. He wanted to hold her tight, but he didn't want her to get the wrong idea... or did he? Gray shook his head, trying to clear his mind.
"Gray-sama," Juvia spoke, worried of Gray's sudden move. "Are you okay?" Gray looked at her for a second, and was about to say something, until he was interrupted.
"Don't waste your time, Juvia," Gajeel said from behind. He was carrying Levy on his back, though she was in fine condition to run. "He's probably just mad cause he didn't get to beat the crap out of Zeref."
"Gajeel-kun..." Juvia muttered, facing forward.
Thank you for the save, Gajeel. Gray thought, gratefully. The last thing he wanted was an awkward excuse that he had to come up with in a second. Maybe he really did lik- Get some common sense into you brain. Gray argued in his head. This is Juvia... she's... she's... He couldn't finish his sentence, even in his head!
"There it is!" Natsu yelled, pointing at the big door right ahead of them. They all narrowed their eyes, hoping to destroy that thing... that thing that would bring chaos to the world... that thing that hurt Lucy!
To their luck, they hadn't closed the door, totally, when they escaped with Lucy. The door was ajar, and distant, angry voices could be heard from the door.
Erza sent them a signal so they would line up at both sides of the door. With light and quiet steps, everybody arranged themselves around the door, trying to hear what they was said.
"This can't be happening!" an angry voice exclaimed. Zeref. "Go get her again. And destroy her friends on the way!"
"M-Master Zeref," Elimar muttered. His voice was shaking, like he was about to cry. "Don't... don't you have enough magic as it is? Does a few percent really mean that much?"
A load slap was heard. The group's eyes widened. Though they couldn't see it, it was clear to head, that Zeref had straight up just slapped Elimar in the face.
"Don't go stab my back, like the girls," Zeref said with a warning note in his voice. "If those filthy Fairies had not interfered when they did, chaos should've been upon us by now!"
There was a long silence. Only the breaths from the group were heard.
"What are you waiting for," Zeref exclaimed. "Go get Lucy Heartfilia and kill her friends. That's an order."
Natsu couldn't take it anymore! Without thinking, he pushed open the door and let out a battle cry as he lit his hands on fire. He flew through the air and actually managed to hit Elimar right on his back, resulting him to fall forwards.
"You aren't coming near Lucy again!" Natsu yelled, his face contracted in anger. "Never!"
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Lucy's alive! But can they keep Elimar away from her? And what about the machine?
Read the next chapter: It's now or never