Reaching Out

A One-Shot of Fairy Tail written bySagioca Helsker

~Disclaimer: I might contact you if my name magically turns out to be Hiro Mashima~

It was like any other day at Edolas Fairy Tail, there were festivities everywhere, mages running here and there looking up requests, the young ones talking with each other happily, the older ones drinking a pint of wine...The usual senario you would see everyday at the guild.

Everyone were so caught up in their own world that most of them did not notice when the guild doors spread wide open. There was a little girl standing in front of it.

The little girl, in their standards, was dressed unusually. She wore a purple vest over a plain purple undershirt, the vest lined with yellow edges; her vest and undershirt only reached down above her stomach, and it was bare; under that was a pair of short pants that looks like the lower portion have been ripped; and on her feet were a tattered pair of sandals. On her short, spiky blonde hair was a skull-looking ponytail that she used to tie the rest of her hair to her side. Over her shoulders was a brown, muddy and dirty knapsack.

She looked different.

She noticed that people weren't paying attention to her, and she sighed in relief. She then continued to make her way toward a white-haired mage.

"Exuse me," she said, barely audible. The kind mage looked over her shoulder and turned around.

"Hello!" she greeted with a smile. The blonde was amazed—it didn't look like she forced herself at all. "What can I do for you?"

"I-Is this..." she said nervously. "Is this Fairy Tail?"

"Why yes, you've come to the right place! Welcome to our guild. Do you have any intentions of joining?"

She surveyed the teenager standing in front of her. She looked like she was only two years older than her. She had long, white-colored hair that she tied into a ponytail; her dress hadstraps that only connected from the middle (that's where the base started) and they looked loopy; and on her feet were a pair of flat shoes, pink in color. Her eyes were a kind blue.

The young girl blushed shyly. She wasn't used to getting kind remarks from other people. "Well...I-I actually..."

Then suddenly, a diversion happened. A small young girl—a little smaller than her—appeared, jumping up and down excitedly. "MIRA-NEE! MIRA-NEE!"

She ran toward her older sister, her short curly hair flying behind her. "Elf-niichan and I found a new species of rabbit!"

"That's great, Lisanna."

Lisanna noticed the shy blonde girl looking down at her feet. "Hello! You must be new. Are you here to join the guild?"

The blonde looked up—her cheeks lightly colored pink—and grinned. "O-Of course! Lucille Kete Ashley at your service!"

"Look Lisanna! I got my cool guildmark!"

Lucille ran toward her newfound friend and sat beside her, waving around her left hand.

"Wow, that's so great Luci!" Lisanna said, glad that the girl had chosen to join them. They weren't really that famous.

Luci noticed that there was a pink-haired boy sitting beside Lisanna, and peered at him in curiosity. He looked like he's shaking.

"Oi, what's your name whimp?"

"Luci!" Lisanna scolded, resulting in Luci's shock. "That isn't very nice."

"Geez, sorry Lis." she said sheepishly. "Anyway, kid, what's your name?"

The boy looked up, fear writen all over his face. "N-Natsu...Drag-Dragion..."

Luci leaned closer to him. "Why are 'ya so shy?"

"Like you weren't earlier, Luci-chan." Lisanna laughed. "Your personality changed drastically!"

"I live a double life." Luci winked at Lisana and laughed as well. Then she turned to Natsu. "No need to be scared of me kid, I don't bite."

Well, her smirk told otherwise.

Two Days Later

Luci burried her head in her arms due to lack of things to do. She stayed like this for an hour, then finally, her head jerked up. "Lisanna, let's go take a job."

"Are you sure it's okay to go alone?" Lisanna, who was sitting beside her, asked.

"Fine, we can take that kid with us if it makes you happy." the blonde said annoyed. She was referring to Natsu.

"Oh, okay then."

They went to pick a job. "Oi Mirajane." Luci called out to the barmaid after picking an easy task. "We'll take this job, please."

Lisanna laughed merrily. "Luci-chan, you destroyed half the house!"

"That bastard of a reptile," Luci replied with a huff, stomping beside Lisanna. "It made me chase him around the house!"

Natsu could only giggle silently, he didn't want Luci to hear him.

As you may have guessed, Luci had picked a babysitting job that didn't turn out well. Half of th house needs repairing, so they weren't given any reward at the end.

When they entered the guild, Mira asked how the mission turned out.

"Mirajane, it wasn't worth my time."

She chuckled. "Well then, remind me to remind you and not to give you any more missions of that kind."

Suddenly, across the room Luci heard a tsk.

"You're so lame."

Luci looked around to see who spoke. It was a blue-haired skinny girl, who was smiring widely. She looked about the same age as her.

"What did you say you skinny bitch?"

"I said chubby, that you couldn't even finish a simple task."

"Why you—"

And pretty soon she and Levy started fighting again.

"Hara hara..."

It was going to be a long afternoon.

July 7 x782

"Lisanna!"

Well, this wasn't close to what Luci Ashley was expecting to be in 4 years. There she was, lying on the edge of a cliff, her hand over the edge holding on tight to her best friend's.

"Luci..."

Luci could see it. The fear in her eyes. "Don't worry Lisanna! I'll get you up here..."

"No Luci..." Lisanna smiled sadly, tears silently flowing down her face. "Save yourself. Don't worry about me..."

Luci felt Lisanna's hand slip slowly out of her grasp. She gripped it tighter.

"Don't do this Lisanna! Think of Mirajane, Elfman, the guild! Think of how I would feel!"

"Please don't blame yourself..." Lisanna whispered as her hand fell from Luci's grasp. She fell down, down onto the rocky ravine.

"LISANNA!"

Luci desparately tried to grab ahold of her again, but she couldn't. She looked in shock about what just happened, and her eyes were quickly producing tears.

She will forever try to find her.

When Luci came into the guild, everyone fell silent. Every head was turned to her. They fet nervous when they noticed Lisanna wasn't with her. But she couldn't be. She's only fifteen!

"Tiger's Stripes have been eliminated by the Royal Army."

Their eyes widened. "Y-You mean..." Levy stuttered.

Luci faced her. "Yes. We're the only ones left."

All of a sudden she heard a scream. It was coming from Mirajane, who was running toward her.

"Lisanna! Where's Lisanna?!"

uci fought back the tears, or at leats tried to, but to no avail. "She's..."

She gulped as Mirajane stopped in front of her. She couldn't say it. "...dead."

Tears started flowing down Mira's once happy face too. "No...she couldn't be!"

She fell to her knees and started sobbing hard into her arms. Elfman's eyes widened and he approached his sister.

"No way...h-how could it be..."

"She died because of me." Luci said, earning gasps from her guildmates. "She fell off a cliff. She tried to save me. Please, blame me. I know you won't forgive me..."

With that, Luci stormed off and went to the direction of her room, leaving the dead girl's siblings cry in despair, and the guildmates look at eachother, not believing what they have just heard.

"Lisanna!"

She couldn't believe it. Lisanna was there, not in a fine state, but alive nevertheless. Luci stared at her, tears forming at the corner of her eyes. The last time she saw her...she thought she was dead.

"Lisanna's alive nee-chan!"

"You fell from so high...I thought it was all over for you!"

The two older siblings raced toward their youngest sister and hugged her with all their might. "Don't leave us again..."

"I'm home." Lisanna whispered, smiling at her siblings.

After the family reunion was done, Mira had to ask. "But how...?"
"I-I...can't remember. All I remember was waking up in front of the guild..."

They gasped. Amnesia?

Luci made her way to Lisanna, pushing everyone away. For once, Levy did not manage a snarly remark when she was toppled off.

"Lisanna..."

Lisanna looked at her, her blue eyes shining. "It's you..."

She was shocked when Luci advanced to hug her. "Oh Lisanna...I'm so sorry I never got to protect you...You died because of me..."

"Shh..." Lisanna higged her back. "Don't cry. I may not remember what happened, but I know that it wasn't your fault..."

Who knew the Lisanna they had met that day hid a secret from all of them?

"Wait! Everyone, it's not what you think!" Lisanna flapped her arms wildly.

Of course this would happen soon. Due to being originally from Earthland, she was sowly beng sucked by the Anime and gravity was beginning to fail her.

She gasped as Mirajane squeezed her hand.

"It's okay, we knew."

Lisanna's mind took long to process what her "sister" had said. "Eh...?"

"We couldn't tell you the truth. I hope you forgive us." Elfman said, hugging his "little sister"'s head close to him. After awhile, he released her. Mira, however, kept holding her hand.

"You're kind and loving, just lik our Lisanna, who passed away." she said, smiling sadly. "So...you can't let your real brother and sister suffer..."

"Mira-nee..." Lisanna held Mira's hand tightly. "Elf-niichan..."

"Go to your own world, Lisanna," Mira said as she slowly released Lisanna's hand, "give your love to our Earthland selves..."

Lisanna slowy started to ascend into the sky, when suddenly Luci ran past the two siblings and jumped forward to catch her hands.

"Luci?"

"Why did you lie to me, to all of us?!"

"Luci, it's okay..."
"No, it's not okay!" Luci pulled Lisanna toward her. "I loved you, Lisanna! Why did you have to lie to me? Two years! Two years you tricked me! How could you?! YOU FUCKING BETRAYED ME!"

"Luci..." Lisanna said sadly. "I'm sorry..."

"Sorry doesn't cut it, Miss Strauss!"

Lisanna's eyes widened. "How did you—"

"What do you think, I'm stupid?" Luci interrupted, tears flowing over her face. Oh, how she had cried enough in all her life. Her knees gave in to her. "If you just didn't try to replace her..."

"I just couldn't say it too..." the white-haired teenager said softly. "I couldn't...everyone thought I was your Lisanna..."

"And you damn weren't...you were just a fraud."

"LUCI!"
"SHUT THE HELL UP LEVY!" Luci swore. "Dammit!"

"I loved you too, Luci." This made Luci gasp. "You were so kind to me...I guess this was worth it. But I couldn't face you again after this...good bye."

And Earthland's Lisanna did exactly what Edolas' did...she let go of Luci's hand, an went away into her own world.

"LISANNA!"

It felt as if the event repeated itself, what happened two years ago happened again. She would never be able to fully grasp reality, that they were forever gone to her.

Both of them.

Lisanna saw, in the corner of her eye, a new version of Luci...no, Lucy. Yes. What she really wanted to do was jump at her, hug her, but her actions led her to jump on Natsu instead. Sure, she was more than happy to see her best friend after years, but she couldn't get what Luci had said to her.

"You betrayed me..."

That hurt. But maybe, just maybe, she could make up to her through her counterpart.

But, Lucy could never replace her Luci.