Look at the Tumblr for Art and small excerpts of the story. https://www.tumblr.com/blog/snowblueowl
Lucy stood before the mission board, she was supposed to be looking for a job, but her mind was elsewhere. Ever since Lisanna 'came back from the dead', Fairy Tail hasn't been the same. Her hair stands on end whenever she is in the guildhall, never feeling safe till she has left the building. Her team slowly stopped talking to her, everyone turns their backs to her injuries, calling her weak and useless, when they thought she wouldn't hear them. Which sounds stupid given the S-class status she received when she shared her past with Gramps, Cana, and strangely Gildarts. Both left on a trip to get to know each other better, Cana asked her to come along, even Gildarts did, worried about her. She told them she needed to finish something first and that she would meet up with them later. She had recently finished and had told Cana over a Lacrima Stone during the train ride back that she would head out to meet them after Gramps got back from the Guild Master meeting.
Nowadays Lucy feels like she spends most of her time either on missions or helping with the guild paperwork with the Master, who had become her pseudo-grandfather. All to avoid the main guildhall. But with him gone at a Guild Master meeting, she needed a job so she didn't have to spend time in the guild. Normally when she finished a job early and the old man was at a Guild Master meeting, she would just crash it, but the Magic Council said she filled her meeting crashing quota for the year, and it was hard to keep a straight face as they said those exact words, and when they had to explain what her quota was and the rules. Even if the Council found it funny and entertaining, 'Such a shame, Gramps makes the funniest faces when I scare him.' Lucy felt the hair on the back of her neck stand up and took action unconsciously, she jumped back, feet sliding into a defensive position as she twirled to face her attacker, whip already in hand. She paused, blinked a few times before shouting,
"The hell, Scarlet!? Did your regular ignoring me getting too boring? Trying to kill me now?!" There where Lucy had been standing a moment before was a sword lodged deep into the wood. 'That would have hurt.'
"Yes." Scarlet and the rest of Team Natsu chorused. Lucy put her whip away 'no need to hurt anyone in the guild on accident' and stared at them, waiting,
"Well, are you going to tell me why?"
They blinked as if they thought she knew, "You attacked Lisanna!"
"I just returned from a mission an hour ago, haven't even been able to go home and shower, it's all recorded in the mission book, and the train station, so no, I physically could not have attacked her. Now leave me alone."
"Are you calling her a liar?!" Natsu yelled.
"Yes, I am also calling you all gullible as you did not investigate and went straight to attacking me. I mean really, you can check, like right now, the book is 5 feet away." Lucy deadpanned pointing at the bar. Maryjane looked at the book sitting innocently on the counter, before quickly turning back to the glass she'd been cleaning for the last ten minutes, ignoring the book along with the rest of Team Natsu.
"You... Bastard!" Gray shouted.
"That was neither a creative insult nor was it correct, I have a father Gray," Lucy sighed, "move so I can get another job and leave. I'll be out of your hair and this can be settled when Master, the Magic Council, and the Military are here. You know, the legal thing to do." Not for the first time, Lucy questioned her choice of staying instead of joining Cana and Gildarts to sail the Grand Line again. She missed the sea, adventure, and hijinks she got up to, even if it was lonely. But she knew that she needed to finish something in the guild first before she could go join them.
'ha, never was a dull day on the Grand Line.' she thought with a sad smirk.
'Just one more week, then I'll go meet up with them.' Lucy reminded herself, thoughts briefly drifted to her brothers wondered how they were doing,
'They should have all set sail by now, given the 7-year skip. Oh Hell, Ace and Sabo should be 21 years old now, if that's not a complete mind-fuck. I am the same age as two of my little brothers.'
As she was having a small mental existential crisis she didn't take notice of her ex-team.
"Hell, no!" Gray and Natsu yelled, jumping and holding her down as Erza pinned her body to the ground with swords, everyone in the guild was watching, doing nothing. Erza nodded as soon as she was sure Lucy would not move, Natsu grabbed her right hand and proceeded to burn her mark off as well as up her entire arm and onto part of her back and chest, meanwhile, Erza slashed a huge X on Lucy's chest, from each shoulder to the opposing hip.
She could hear her spirits yelling in her head, to be let out, to help her. Loke yelled the loudest, she could hear the tears and pain in his voice, he did not want to lose his closest friend or another summoner. Lucy grit her teeth not making a sound and used all of her energy and willpower to keep the gates closed, she would not risk her friends' safety or the safety of the innocent people in the guild.
Suddenly, as quickly as it began, the torture stopped, and whispers echoed through the room. Lucy glanced up and locked eyes with Lisanna, her leg was wrapped up, she held one of Erza's swords in her hand. Looking at the weapon Lucy could tell that it was purposely dulled down.
'Oh, she wants this to hurt.' never had Lucy hated anyone as much as she hated the bitch smirking down at her. Lisanna approached Lucy with excited eyes, kneeling she whispered into Lucy's ear,
"I'll kill you and then use your death to kill your brothers. Yes, I know who you truly are, and who they are. Don't worry, a friend of mine, Teach, will make sure of their demise, after all, demons deserve to die. That's 'Justice', right?" With those words Lisanna stood, raising the sword and bringing it down on her right arm. Lucy was aware of the tearing of muscles and ligaments before another swing smashed her bone. Dull as the sword was, it only made it halfway through her arm after two swings, it honestly felt more like a slightly sharp sledgehammer. Glancing around she saw the cringing faces of her ex-team. Some blood from the sword had splattered onto Natsu's face, his eyes wide. It was then that she saw it, slight doubt in their eyes.
'I forgive you.' she thought, 'and I'm sorry it came to this.' With that, she smiled and closed her eyes as Lisanna raised the bloody, dull sword once more. The sword swung down making a sound as it cut through the air and impacted her arm once more. Lucy's body went numb and shut down, sadly it seemed her mind was still in overdrive. She was aware of Loke crying out her name, though it sounded like she was underwater. She didn't know how he showed up, she was still keeping all the gates closed. The swords were being removed from the floor before hands picked her up. There were panicked shouts from the guild, but the words were lost on her till all she could hear was static. For Lucy, the darkness now had a full grip on her and pulled her down into nothingness.
Her last thought was an apology to her brothers, as she realized she suddenly had so many regrets in regards to them.
She failed.