Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail nor any of its characters, they belong to their respective owners. I only take credits for the assembly of this story.

Summary: After a month since returning from Edolas, Lucy feels that she wasn't of much use, and when their friends needed her the most she wasn't really able to help them, thus, she decided that she will leave Fairy Tail for a year to train herself and become more powerful, but what happens when she meets with the last dragon on Eartland?


Chapter 1: Leaving Home.

The sun was rising in the city of magnolia, in with it, the citizens started to wake up from a well deserved night of sleep. A certain blonde haired girl however, wasn't able to conciliate a good night sleep for at least a week now, it didn't matter what she did, she always had nightmares, or more specific, the same nightmare every night.

She stretched herself, feeling her tired limbs crack with the motion, she returned to a fetal position for a bit, and felt her body all wet with sweat, sighting, she thought, 'I wonder why I keep getting the same dream every night'.

Flashback to Nightmare

The same blonde haired girl was at her guild, Fairy Tail, with her friends, Erza, Gray, Natsu, Happy, Juvia and even Lisanna, they were all talking happily, ever since Lisanna returned to the guild, she had readapted pretty nicely, and was accepted by all of them, including the new additions to the guild, although Juvia sometimes glared at her thinking she was another love rival to stand between her and Gray. She became very close to Lucy herself.

After a while of laughing and drinking, the atmosphere got dark and tense, and suddenly Natsu Happy, Erza and Gray were all looking directly at Lucy, with their eyes being darkened a shadow casted from nowhere. "Why can't you be more useful Lucy?" they all said in unison, "Wha-" Lucy said, but was cut by Natsu, "I always have to go saving you…" he said, "When we needed you the most in Edolas you weren't able to do anything", Happy continued, "Wait.." Lucy was cut off by Erza this time "You are always running around, you are the weakest member of Fairy Tail!..." she said with a terrifying voice, Lucy's eyes started to swell up in tears, "I… I Thought i-", "What?, You thought you were a little bit strong?, Hah!, you are useless, you don't deserve to be in Fairy Tail!" Gray said with a cold tone.

End of Flashback.

Lucy always woke up there. She decided to get ready for another day at the guilt, she stood and headed to the bathroom, all the while mumbling "It's just a dream, It's just a dream" as if it were a chant for good luck. She noticed in the mirror of the bath that her eyes were red and puffy, and her cheeks were marked with streaks of tears, "I cried again, perhaps this is my own subconscious saying I should become strong?". She decided to dismiss it for the time being, she washed her face and dressed in her usual attire, a white tank with a blue cross like symbol, and a white skirt, her usual belt with her celestial keys on one side and her new whip the Fleuve des Etoiles, given to her by virgo, and a fair of high heeled boots.

She went to the guild, the main room of the guild was huge, with tables everywhere, and at the left side was a bar, were Mirajane was, as usual, cleaning a glass. She had white hair that reached to her waist, and a red dress. The guild was filled with members, and some of them were already drinking, to be more precise, Cana, who was empting a barrel of whine. Gray was talking with Juvia, Erza and Lisanna. Happy and Natsu were nowhere to be found.

Lucy sat in front of Mirajane, "Good morning, Mirajane-san" she said, with a sleepy tone, and resting her head on the bar. "Good Morning Lucy-san" Mirajane answered, "Something's wrong?" She asked with a concerned look on her face. "Not really, I just didn't sleep well, can I get a glass of water?", Lucy said.

"Sure… How come? a nightmare or something?" Mirajane said while grabbing a new glass and pouring some water in it. "Yea, nothing out of the ordinary, it should go away soon" Lucy said, 'At least I hope so' she thought.

The doors suddenly opened with a BAM and the figure of Natsu and Happy entered, everybody stopped what they were doing to look at the door, silence reigned for a few seconds in the room. "Good Morning Everyone!" he said, "Aye" Happy finished.

"Idiot! What do you think you are doing?" Gray said appearing to the left side of natsu and hitting him in the head, "Oy!, what was that!, do you want a fight sleepy eyes!", Natsu answered forcing his forehead with his and pushing him over, Gray pushed more, "Anytime you Pointy eyes, I can beat you right here" he said, "Gray your clothes", Lisanna said, Gray looked down to see he was only wearing shorts now, "Ahh! Where did they go?", he said, turning his head frantically searching for his clothes, Everybody swet dropped. "Lets fight!", Natsu said and started beating Gray, and Gray hitting back.

Suddenly Erza stood with a grim expression on her face; she wore her usual torso armor and blue skirt with black boots. She stood in front of Gray and Natsu who didn't notice her and cracked her knuckles in anticipation, but just before she was about to stop them, Gajeel jumped from out of nowhere to join the fight, but also pushing Erza into it.

The guild realiced what had happened and started to fight each other as usual. Mirajane and Lucy sighted the later standing up and heading towards the work board. "Are you looking for a job?" Mirajane said behind her, Lucy nodded while looking around the board and was startled by Natsu, who suddenly said, "Mmm apparently the Vulcans are giving trouble gain, wanna go solve it?, it should be easy, and the pay is good". Lucy shrieked, and turned to look at Natsu, "Wh- What are you doing here?, were you fighting?" Lucy asked Natsu, but before he could answer Gray appeared to the other side, "Yea, but we need money" he said simply. Lucy jumped and turned around towards Gray, who still was in shorts, "What about your clothes?", she said, "Damn it!, I forgot!" Gray said, turning around looking for them, Lucy turned around as well and sweet dropped when noticed that everybody was still fighting despite the ones who started it had stopped.

"So, What do you say Lucy?" Natsu asked her again. Lucy turned around to see him smiling. She smiled as well and nodded, "Sure, let's do it", and with that they both headed towards Mount Hakobe. Lisanna sat with her sister looking towards the fading figures of Natsu, Happy and Lucy. "They sure make a good team don't they?" she said, Mirajane turned to her, and followed her gaze, catching a glimpse of the retreating figures, "Yea… They've been working together ever since Natsu brought her" she said with a smile, Lisanna turned towards her sister and smiled too, 'Good Luck, Natsu, Happy, Lucy. Come back home safe' she thought.

After a few hours of traveling in carriage, and then another few hours waling, the trio managed to reach the clearing in the mountains that the contract was talking about, it was an easy travel because there was no storm, and the sun shined brightly over their heads, although Lucy was still wearing a big sweater inside of horologium due to the cold.

"We've arrived" Natsu said looking around in the clearing, trying to spot the Vulcans, "Yea, we have", Lucy said, stepping out of horologium, and readying her whip in case of a surprise attack, 'I'm not getting captured again' she thought.

"Were are they?", Natsu said impatient, he neared the border of the clearing and started to look around, "Whoa!, there is a huge lake down there!", he said, and started look a way to go down. "Really?" Lucy asked him, he nodded and stepped onto one of the borders of the clearing, however, the border was a weak one, and collapsed under his weight, "Aaaaaaaah" he said falling, "Natsu!", both Lucy and Happy said in unison, the later calling his wings out and jumping to catch Natsu. Happy was able to catch him and landed a few metters down, were they saw the entry to a cave.

"Are you okay, Natsu!" Lucy yelled at him from the top of the cliff, he turned and yelled back, "Yes!, I think I found them!", and with that, he was suddenly surrounded by 5 vulcans, "Found you!", he said and stood in a battle ready stance, "Look out!" Lucy said, and turned around to find a way to go down, but was surprised when something punched her right in the stomach, causing her to drop her keys. When she looked, she noticed that she was surrounded by 10 vulcans.

'Crap' was all she could think, getting her new Whip ready, she stood in a fighting stance. Natsu couldn't notice the fight going on above him because he was busy fighting his own Vulcan's. Two Vulcan's tried to attack him at the same time, each throwing a punch directed to him, but he avoided both of them with a quick jump. Due to the force of the punches, both Vulcans got stuck in the snow were they fists impacted, thus, giving the opportunity for Natsu to land a hit, "Fire Dragon's Flame Elbow" he yelled, causing both of his elbows to ignite in fire, and landing each of them into the back of the Vulcans, causing them to pass out. The other 3 left, enraged by the defeat of their brothers charged against him, hitting him square in the chest, and launching him a few meters away.

The Vulcans then roared with a bestial cry, which echoed throughout the mountains, Natsu stood again with a grin on his face and said, "So you can fight back!, Now I'm all Fired up!", and was about to launch an attack again, but before he could, 3 more Vulcans jumped from behind the ones he had in front of him, and stood aside each other, "So, you called backup…" He said.

Lucy, on the other hand wasn't fairing so good, she was able to beat one Vulcan with her whip, but she didn't go unscratched, she had a few scrapes on her legs, and a rather large gash on her arm that was bleeding profusely. A Vulcan charged against her, and she jumped to the side, avoiding the punch, and thinking quickly, she launched her whip towards the legs of the Vulcan, using his own momentum to make him trip, and falling down the cliff to who knows where.

She started to look around for her keys, and found them near one of the Vulcans, She charged towards him, surprising him long enough for her to throw a kick on his face, which impacted hard, causing him to stumble backwards. Lucy fell on the floor, and grabbed her keys quickly, she was about to summon Taurus, but was surprised by the charge of another Vulcan, which hit her square in the back, and launching her down the cliff into a rather steep hill. She rolled down the hill and crashed near into a tree near Natsu.

Natsu heard the crashing sound and turned around, searching for the cause of the sound, which proved wrong, taking advantage of the distraction, one of the Vulcans grabbed him by the torso and threw him towards the mountain again, causing a dent in it due to the force of the crash. Natsu stepped out of it with minor scratches but nothing serious, and turning to his left, he noticed the standing figure of Lucy surrounded by several Vulcans. "Lucy!" He yelled, Lucy turned around and when she saw Natsu she smiled at him and started running towards him, Vulcans following, "Natsu!" She said.

"Are you ok?" Natsu asked her, noticing the several injuries she had, "Yea, I'm fine!" she said shaking her Whip to grab a Vulcano that was about to hit Natsu again, and as if dancing, she motioned the Whip to turn around and launch the Vulcan againts a three, rendering him unconscious. "Better see what you doing", Lucy said, causing Natsu to smile and turn to his fight, were 4 Vulcans were left, Lucy turned to the Vulcans that were following her, 2 left, and grabbing a key from her Key ring she said, "Open, A door to the Golden Bull Palace!... Taurus!", a yellow circle appeared in front of Lucy, and from it, a Bull with a huge Axe Materialized. "Lucy-San!, You have the Moo-st precious figure I ever seen!," He said with her eyes shaped like hearts, Lucy face palmed and pointing towards the Vulcans left, "Taurus, Mind helping me a bit?" she said, Taurus turned around and noticing the Two Vulcans he grabbed his axe and stood ready.

Natsu launched towards the Vulcans, and with a swift kick, sent the closes one to him flying away from him. Then, with a quick motion, he jumped into the air, avoiding a kick from another Vulcan. Then, just when he was at the top of the jump, he took a deep breath, placed both his hands in front of his mouth, as if they were some kind of straw, and said, "Fire Dragon's Roar!", and exhaled fire just like a dragon would do.

The fire burned two of the three remaining Vulcans, and the last one, noticing that he had no chances to win, turned around and started running away, with tears coming out of its eyes. "And don't come back here!", Natsu yelled.

Meanwhile, something strange happened to Lucy and Taurus, they were fighting, and just when Taurus defeated his opponent, and Lucy was about to deliver the finishing kick to hers, it easily avoided it, and while Lucy was still in the air, delivered a kick into her stomach that blew the air in her lungs, and making her crash hard against the floor. Due to the force of the crash, her head bounced and landed on a solid rock, rendering her unconscious, causing Taurus to return to the Celestial Spirits World.

The Vulcan was about to grab Lucy, but it was at that moment that Natsu finished his fight and turned around to see were Lucy was. He noticed that the Vulcan had his hand a few inches away from Lucy's torso, which enraged him, "Hey! What do you think you are doing!" He yelled at the Vulcan. Said Creature jumped and turned around, seeing how Natsu was running towards him, Fist at the ready. He started to shake his arms defensively, and turn his head to the sides, looking for a quick exist, but wasn't fast enough, Natsu delivered a punch to his chin, sending him flying and rendering him unconscious.

He turned towards Lucy, "Lucy! Are you Okay!" He asked, concerned plastered in his face. He shook her a little, and her eyes slowly opened, and she started to stir, "What Happened?" she asked, "Natsu?". "I don't know, but we finished the mission, lets head back home!" he said, with a smile on his face, and showing a Thumbs up to Lucy, "Oh Good, Let's go", Lucy said as she stood up, "Where is Happy?", she asked, turning her head around searching for him, "Ahhh!, Happy!" Natsu said Jumping and searching frantically for him.

Just then Happy appeared with an smuffled "Aye!", he had a fish on his mouth and was eating it happily, "You went fishing while we were fighting!" Lucy said, an evil aura surrounding her, "Aye" happy said again, happy munching his meal, and unaware of the change in Lucy. A Knot appeared on said blondes forehead, and with a swift motion she placed a hit in his head, "Don't be so happy about it!", she yelled, scaring both Natsu and Happy, and causing a bump to form on the later ones head. "Lucy is scary" they both said, as they all made their way towards the Guild.

The trip back seemed shorter, and they managed to receive their reward in the town where they had to take a carriage back to magnolia. However, during the whole trip one thought was constant on Lucy's mind, 'I wasn't able to beat them by myself, I needed Natsu's help again, haven't I become stronger?'.

Once they arrived to the guild, the sun was already hidden, and the moon was starting to show, everybody greeted them as usual, "Welcome Home Natsu, Happy, Lucy!" Mirajane said, Lisanna neared them and hugged each one, "Glad you are all okay", (Lucy had treated her arm before taking the carriage home, so she only had a bandage there.)

Natsu sat with Erza, Gray, Juvia and Lisanna, and Lucy headed towards the bar near Mirajane. She sat there and asked Mirajane to give her a glass of water. Mirajane placed the water in front of her and noticed the bandage, "Here you have Lucy…. Oh, are you okay?," She said pointing towards it, Lucy raised her arm dismissing it and said, "Yea, I'm fine, nothing to worry about", Mirajane smiled at that and nodded, however she noticed something weird with Lucy, she seemed a little depressed, but decided not to dwell on it.

After a while Lucy decided to head home, and after a bit of walking and playing in the wall near the river trying to maintain her balance she arrived home. Once there she submerged in her tub for a bit, allowing her body to relax.

She changed into her usual night attire, a simple light blue pajama and lay in her bed for a bit, letting the dreamland claim her.

The Next morning, she awoke all wet in sweat again, she had the same nightmare, however, there was a slight change in Natsu's speech, this time it said "I had to save you again yesterday, I'm getting really tired of it Lucy, perhaps you should leave", she laid in her bed thinking, 'Perhaps this dreams are really my subconscious telling me that I should get stronger… That's it, up to some point it's true, I can be stronger, but what should I do?' she stood from her bed and went to take a shower to clean her from the sweat, and all the while she thought what to do, once she was out and changed into her usual attire she came to most logical conclusion, "Alright, I'm going to adventure out of Fairy Tail by myself!, I can train with my spirits that way!" she said out loud.

She headed towards Fairy Tail ready to go, she had a small backpack with some spare clothes, food for a week, she figured she could get some in some time, and her wallet filled with her savings.

Once she arrived to the guild, she headed towards Mirajane, "Good Morning Mirajane-san, is the master around here?" she asked, "Good morning, Lucy-san, oh, No yet, but he should be arriving soon" she said with a smile, "In that case I'll wait a bit, I'll be at the work board waiting". She returned the smile and headed towards the work board, there she grabbed a few random work contracts and stacked them up into her backpack, Mirajane neared her, "What's with the Backpack Lucy-san? and why so many jobs?", Lucy turned around to see who was talking to her and answered, "Oh, I'll be leaving for a bit so I thought I might as well take a few jobs to do while I'm out".

It was then that the master entered the guild and everybody said in unison, "Good Morning Master!". Mirajane smiled towards the Master, and Lucy neared him, "Master, may I talk to you in private?" she said smiling, the Master turned his head up and nodded, "Sure Lucy, I'll meet you at the office" he said, returning her smile.

She headed towards the second floor, and entered the office, and could hear how the Master told them not to bother them or there would be consequences. Once he entered he sat on his chair, to the other side of a desk in front of Lucy, the room wasn't small, but neither was it too big, it was simple, just a fireplace behind the chair were The Master sat, and a huge window to the side, eliminating the need for any kind of candle, "What do you wanted to talk about, Lucy?" The Master said he was small, and wore some sort of carnival clothing; however, his eyes gave away an impression of deep knowledge.

"I'll be leaving for around a year, I want to train, and I want to explore the world a little" she said happily, Makarov tried to catch a Glimpse of doubt in her, but couldn't, and was a little surprised when he noticed the look of determination in her eyes, in some way, it reminded him of Natsu, 'Ha, it seems Lucy has grown a lot in her time here, and she's become more powerful that most think she is, she has come a long way from who she was.' He thought. Makarov smiled at her, "Alright, we will be waiting for you today, a year from now, you better return" he said. "Yes! Master Makarov" The girl said, happy that it wasn't much more difficult, "However, before you go, we've got to do a party, it's the last time we'll see you in a while, but before we do," he headed towards the door and opened, "How long have you been hearing?", he said, causing the figures of Natsu, Grey and Erza to drop on the floor, Natsu looked up and said, "Since you closed the door" he smiled dumbly. "I said there would be a punishment", Makarov said as an eerie aura fell on the room, and he started to grow, the tree of them started to shake in fear, something weird for Erza, "Your punishment will be… Take care of Lucy's house while she's gone!" with that he was in his normal size again with a smile and making the symbol of peace with his hand. "Now go back down, I need to announce to the whole guild.

They all went down as if they had seen a ghost, they were still scared, even thought It seemed more like a joke, both Makarov and Lucy stepped out of the office and turned towards their fellows Guild members before going down, "Alright folks, listen up", Makarov yelled, the usual noisy guild stood in silence, even Natsu and Gray who were fighting stopped, "we are going to throw a party for Lucy here, she will be leaving us for a little while now, so we might as well send her out with bang!" he said, Lucy had her cheeks red, due to the attention, at the mention of her name everybody turned their eyes towards her, and suddenly, the guild exploded in cheers as Mirajane started to pour drinks for everyone, "I'm sure gonna miss this, my family" Lucy mumbled to herself.

She went down stairs towards her friends, her family, Natsu, Erza and Gray all asked her at the same time, "Were are you going, Why!" they said, they were smiling, but they also seemed sad due to the departure of their friend, they all did. "Hey don't eat me" she said chuckling, "I'm going to train and explore for a little bit, so I can become stronger" she said smiling, Natsu, Grey and Erza smiled, "Let's go together then!" Grey said, but Lucy shook her head, "No, Sorry, but this is something I really need to do by myself", she said, and then smiled again. "Very well then", Erza said.

After a bit of celebration, and a huge cake was given to everybody, as well as Natsu and Grey creating some sort of fireworks for Lucy inside the guild, burning a few tables, she decided it was time to go, she stood, and grabbing her backpack, she headed towards the door, "Well, I think it's time for me to go" she said, everybody stood up, and with one last gulp of their drinks they all said in unison, "Come back home safe Lucy!".

"Well, Good luck with that" Natsu said, Erza hugged her and said, "Well, I'm going to miss you" shocking everybody that heard, Gray hugged her too, "We'll all miss you, Good luck", Wendy was crying, but hugged her none the less, Lisanna hugged her too, "Come back quickly, don't make us wait" she said. Lucy nodded, "Thanks guys, I'll be come home soon, by the way, I don't want to see burned things, or slashed, or frozen or wet or whatever once I'm back you hear me?" Lucy said pointing towards Erza Grey and Natsu, who had faces like "We don't do that". "There should be food there for a week so please finish it so it doesn't go bad" she said smiling and started to make her way away from the guild.

Once she was a few meters away, she turned to see her friends waving, she waved back and yelled, "Oh and Natsu!, you better keep strong enough, if not, once I'm back I'm going to kick your ass", and with that, she continued to walk away. Said comment shocked them all, but then they started to laugh, and kept waving.


So that's it, I hope you liked it, I hope you guys review, for I'm expecting to see the feedback from this story before I continue it, for those who are reading Tsukune's Present, Past and Future, I apologize for not having updated, I just blocked there and ideas started to pop up with this story, so I thought maybe if I did this I might get inspired there, however, I haven't abandoned it, and I have about half chapter done, but I'm just stuck there.