A/N: Hello! This is a new fanfic for me, and I would like your take on weather you like it or not. I have quite a bit planned out, so I was really just wondering if people were interested. Please read and Review. I also do not own Fairy Tail! Thank you
It was just a mission, like any other really. That was what Lucy thought as Team Natsu, with the addition of Wendy and Carla, were fast approaching the site where their newest job would be held. Already they had talked with the mayor of the town that bordered the northern edge of the forest they were currently traveling, and he had told them of the job they had come to do.
Typical of a job that Natsu picked out, they were taking out a lowly dark guild that had called this forest their base of operations. The problem being that they were going to have to scout the entire forest for all of the mages.
As far as the Mayor could see, there were three basic areas for the dark guild mages. The Master and all of the high powered mages were located near the center of the forest, the medium mages were between the center and the edge, and finally the weaker ones were located in a clearing just after the line of trees by the edge. It was set up so that as one of the mages grew in power, they could slowly make their way up through the chains and closer to the Master at the center of the forest.
"So how do we want to split up to take them?" Gray asked as he looked to the map that the mayor had provided them with.
Erza, of course, was the one who answered, "Natsu and I will slip past the first two and take out the top of the operation. Since this is also a training operation for Wendy, you and Gray will handle the middle mages. That leaves Lucy to deal with the weaklings by yourself, is that going to be a problem?"
Lucy knew that she was asking that because of the sheer number of weak mages and not as an insult to her ability. They knew that Lucy was strong in her own way, and Erza wouldn't have left her to deal with an entire level if she didn't think the Celestial mage could do it.
"It won't be a problem!" Lucy answered in confidence. She knew that if she had Taurus and her fleuve d'étoiles, they would be able to make quick work of it. Although the mages were not as strong as they would like, she knew that if she gave them enough time, they could do some damage. It was never good to under estimate an opponent.
"I'm all fired up!" Natsu said as he lit his fits on fire and pounded them in front of his chest.
Gray simply smirked along with Erza, his cool persona not allowing him to get pumped up like the pink haired dragon slayer just yet, though somehow he had managed to keep all of his clothes on so far.
Finally there was little Wendy who looked a little flushed as she gave a shy smile, determined to show she would do just fine.
Of course, no one could forget about the exceeds. Happy and Carla were up in the air, Happy was clearly excited as Carla simply had her arms crossed in front of her chest with a slightly disapproving look. She didn't like how fight happy these particular mages were at times. She thought it was a bad influence on Wendy.
With a few last words of encouragement, the five mages and two exceeds split into their teams and started to make their way to the desired fighting fields. Perhaps Happy should have gone with Lucy, but he was so used to being Natsu's wing man that he naturally followed the dragon slayer.
It only took Lucy two minutes to get within sight of the weaker mages' encampment. And from what she saw, she was not impressed.
Calling open Taurus's gate, she and the bull jumped out in full battle ready stance with his axe already positioned in his hands, ready to begin the fighting portion of the mission. He even kept his perverted thoughts to himself as he gave Lucy a quick scan with his eyes. The hearts there clearly showed he thought something, but Lucy was relieved when he kept the words in.
Flicking her fleuve d'étoiles at the targets that went too far away from Taurus, or the ones that were too close to herself, within five minutes all of the enemy mages were unconscious and in a pile around the bull spirit.
Lucy sighed; it really was almost disappointing how easy that had been. From the reports given, these guys were supposed to pose at least some challenge. Maybe it was just because she had taken them by surprise that they hadn't really given her much of a fight.
Calling out Virgo, she had the maid spirit tire them all up in anti-magic ropes so that they could be taken to the rune knights easily. With that done, she was just about to send the two spirits back, well, send Taurus back seeing as Virgo had already taken her leave, when she felt a pull at the back of her mind.
Without really thinking, Lucy had begun to walk forward, her surroundings blurring out of her view as if they no longer mattered. Not even Taurus's calls came to her, even if he was yelling things about protecting her 'nice body' and being a total perv.
She didn't even notice that she had entered a cave, or the shouting Taurus was doing now that he was worried about his key holder. Even as he was attempting to grab her arm and stop her from taking any more steps. She passed a barrier without realizing it, and the moment she was fully past it, the bull spirit was forced back into the spirit world, his master's magic suddenly cut off from him. It was like she had entered a pocket of space that was cut off from the rest of the world. Much like the space that Erza kept her armor and weapons when she had to Ex-quip.
As Lucy walked further into the cave, she found herself solely focused on a basin of what she assumed was water that sat on the ground in the center of the cave. Before she knew it, the Celestial Spirit mage was kneeling on the ground before it and looking into the clear, slightly sparkling liquid that was inside of it.
There in the center, sat two silver keys. It was what had called her into the cave to begin with. They both had been calling to her.
Finally out of her trance, Lucy was unsure of what she was supposed to do with the situation at this point. But she knew that the keys had called her, they wanted her to make a contract with them. She wasn't about to say no to two new friends. Even if she was inclined to leave them, which she was not, she didn't think that they would let her just leave. The magical presence of the two keys were telling her that they were as, if not more, powerful as the golden keys.
Just then another heavy magical pressure was felt. It was familiar and slightly comforting. It was no surprise to Lucy when the Celestial Spirit King was standing before her. She also had no doubts that whatever was happening was going to be fairly important.
"Human girl, it appears as though you have once again wandered on a celestial secret, though this time it was because of the keys in front of you." He began to speak in his deep voice.
He paused then, to see if Lucy wanted to say anything. To his surprise she said "Hi, Mustache Man! Long time no see." In her own little happy way. It made him realize that although he barely knew her, she had considered him a friend from the two other times he had met her. It brought a smile to his face.
He decided that it would be best just to ignore the nick name though. "Before you sit two keys that have not been summoned to this world in nearly a thousand years. You have the opportunity to summon them, but in order to do so you must take a sip of liquid within the basin. Only the smallest sip, are you allowed. Anymore and you will not be able to handle it."
Lucy nodded once to show that she understood what the king was trying to tell her, but inside of her mind she couldn't help but wonder what the liquid was that was surrounding the keys. She also was unaware that this was a test of some sort. It was to see if she knew how to listen to and follow directions even when she was unsure of the situation. Also, though no one but the king knew this, only those with pure intentions could have passed through the barrier that guarded the cave. It was one of the reasons the perverted bull had been denied entrance.
For all Lucy knew, the liquid could have been poison. But she wasn't thinking like that. She trusted the spirit king just as she trusted all of the spirits that had formed a contract with her. She trusted him with her very life.
So with some caution just to be safe, she took the smallest of sips from the liquid and carefully put the two silver keys into a pouch on her belt. When she felt her magic was full she would summon them for the contract.
The spirit gave her a nod and said "Human girl, if you succeed in opening these gates, more will come to you in the future. But you must be prepared, for with these keys those that value power will be coming after you. You must be prepared."
With a respectful bow, she turned to the spirit king and said "Thank you," before heading out of the cave. She had a feeling they were done talking.
Once she came out of the barrier, she was slightly surprised to see that Loke had been anxiously waiting for her to come out of the cave. He had come right after he had gotten Taurus to tell him why he was sent back without Lucy's say.
"Lucy, are you alright?" The lion spirit asked. His voice was clearly laced with concern as he spoke to his master.
"I'm fine!" Lucy said with a smile. Though, one could also see that she had a gleam of excitement in her eyes.
Loke was relieved to see that she was fine. But, little did he know it was too early to be completely without worry. As soon as his back was turned, to escort her back to the rest of the group, a pillar of light surrounded the key holder, and he was suddenly doubled over in pain.
It felt as if hot lava was being poured into his stomach. As he turned around to check on his princess, he saw that she was floating in a pillar of golden light. He called out to her, but it appeared as though she was unconscious. A serine expression was evident on her face, but he that didn't mean that the leader of the zodiacs was reassured of her safety. If anything it made him even more worried.
When he tried to get closer to Lucy, the shear pressure coming from the pillar pushed him back. And as he watched, his pain had begun to increase. It was to the point where he should have been forced back by then, but he refused to leave Lucy's side.
Worried for his masters safety still, he mumbled "Wendy," and began to search for the little sky dragon slayer. He needed to get to them.
After a good few minutes of stumbling around in the direction he thought she would be in, he finally came across her four team mates and the two exceeds. Of course he couldn't breathe right when he saw them, causing him to fall to the ground in pain, panting heavily.
"Loke!" Gray called to his friend.
Wendy ran over to heal him, but he took a grip on her wrists, stopping her and rasped "L-lucy… plea-please help Lucy!"
"Where is she? What happened?" Erza demanded as she straightened and prepared for an attack of any kind. They had all noticed that the dark guild had been far too easy to defeat. The first thing that had run through the head of the s-class mage was that one of the higher ups had been with the weaker mages and had gotten to the celestial mage somehow.
"By a cave, not far away, straight the way I came. It was after she had taken care of all the mages. I don't know what happened. But you have to get to her. Please," With that last word coming out the lion spirit had reached his limit and slumped against Gray who happened to be right next to him. The others could tell that he was in extreme pain, even if he didn't look wounded at all.
The group ran forward, looking for the spot where Lucy was supposedly in danger. As they ran, they did notice the pillar of golden light that seemed to be their destination. Even if it didn't feel malicious to any of them, they couldn't stop the worry that what enveloped their friend was hurting her somehow.
When they finally came into view of Lucy, all of them stopped and gaped.
Floating off of the ground a good twenty feet in the air was Lucy, and she was in the center of the glowing pillar that seemed to be pulsing around her like a heartbeat. Her eyes were closed and her mouth was partly open. It was almost as if she was sleeping.
They had been just looking at the spectacle for a good minute when an agonizing yell came from Loke. He was doing everything in his power to keep the painful burning in his stomach from spreading. Though, he didn't know this, it would hurt a lot less if he just accepted it. But the lion was too dense to figure this out, so he was fighting against it tooth and nail.
"Loke, go back, we will help Lucy." Gray promised his friend. They all had looks of determination in their eyes. They would not let Lucy down!
With a nod, the leader of the zodiacs left the human world to be greeted in the spirit world by Lucy's other spirits. What they had to tell him came as a shock.
Wendy had begun to scan the magic, and Lucy. She stiffened at what she felt. And as she was scanning, the three others were trying their best to reach Lucy, but every time they came within the pillar, they were thrown out and back to where they had started off. They were beginning to get desperate.
They needed to get to Lucy!
A/N so yeah, please tell me what you think.
Big shout out to Lavender Lynn for the Cover Art and to TigerDemonX52 for reading over my idea!
