There's a searing pain in my side. My eyes flutter open, and there's an overcast sky above me. I look to my right, and I see blood on the ground. Frightened, I try to sit up and move away from it. It hurts. I cry out. My head hits the ground; it's very dry. I curl up my fist, and it picks up sand. The ground is cracked underneath my knuckles. I'm in a desert.

Gray. The sky is gray, the ground is dull orange, and the blood next to me has dried to a dark maroon. It's all so gray…

Who am I? Why am I here? I go to sit up again slowly, ignoring the pain. There's something black on my hand, so I try to shake it off. It's not moving. The black stuff is all over me. Are they bugs? I start panicking. Gross! I look closer; it's writing. Scrawled on my left hand are these words:

YOUR NAME IS LUCY HEARTFILIA

Lucy… Heartfilia? It has a familiar ring to it. I look down at more of the scribbles.

YOU ARE A WIZARD

I'm a wizard? Really? The sharp pain in my side strikes again. Maybe I was in a battle. That'd be cool.

HE TOOK YOUR KEYS

That note is written around my arm, so I have to turn it to read it. Keys… that means I'm a celestial wizard, right? And who took them?

The writing goes around my legs, arms, and stomach, and I had a hard time reading a lot of it. Here's what I discovered: I'm Lucy Heartfilia, I'm seventeen years old, I'm a celestial wizard whose keys were stolen, I am a member of Fairy Tail, and I'm supposed to find the one I'm in love with.

I stand up unsteadily and hobble forward. I don't really know where I'm going, but maybe I'll find a town. This was the way I was facing, anyway, so there must've been a point to it. There's a huge thunder clap above me, and I flinch in surprise. Water starts to fall, and I'm surrounded in a light sheen of it.

"Damn it all," I growl.

My hand is clutching the sore part of my ribs, and I'm limping. The wounds have stopped bleeding, but they hurt like hell.

The rain's pouring really hard now. Isn't this a desert? Should it be raining like this? I slip on a slab of mud, and the whole front of my body hits the ground with a smack. I'm just… going to lie here.

The rain pools around my arm, and the thought of water gives me hope. I have a weapon, a special weapon for the water. I concentrate. There's a spirit I have for the water, right? If I'm a celestial wizard, and water gives me hope, it must be true. What is it, then? I'm getting frustrated. My hand clenches again, and mud squelches around it.

Suddenly, a woman materializes in front of me. She's making her body out of the water.

"It's you," she gasps, backing away slowly, "Lucy."

"Who are you?" I choke. My throat's really dry…

"That's right, you… I'm Juvia. Do you remember me?" She points down at me angrily. "You're the one trying to bewitch my Gray-sama!"

Is 'Gray' the one I love? It must be, if I'm trying to take him away from her.

"Juvia, can you help me?"

"Of course I can," she says a little proudly.

Collecting the water around her, Juvia uses the bubble she creates to surround me and pick me up.

"We'll go to the closest town." She smiles back at me, and then turns forward. We fly in the direction I was walking in, and I start to lose consciousness.

Juvia is fighting next to a blue-haired man with a strange tattoo on his face. I almost have his name… Jellal… I think. Yes, Jellal is his name. Jellal's face tightens in shock and horror, and a blur of red hair slumps to the floor. It doesn't get up. He screams for the fallen comrade…

…and I look up to see a wooden ceiling. I'm in a bed, and the softness of it rushes against my skin, soothing me. Juvia's at the bedside, talking with a man. She glances down at me, sees I'm awake, and turns toward me eagerly.

"Lucy, can you hear me?"

I nod.

"I would tell you exactly what's happening, but your body is possessed by a magic force that won't allow anyone to tell you." She looks devastated now, but she continues: "I think we can get it back some if we show you where you're from, though." The man walks out of the room discreetly, and he brings back another girl about my age. She has short, silver-ish hair, and she's wearing a really torn up pink dress. She's trying not to cry.

"Lisanna…"