❇Prologue❇
"Natsu, I'll be heading off now!"
Her voice rang fresh in his mind.
The only other noise he heard was his and the five friends with him's sobs.
If only I had went with her! he thought, wiping at his eyes a he thought about the events that lead to this.
Lucy had needed rent money and he and Happy were busy preparing to go on a special 'training trip' and couldn't go, Erza, Gray, Wendy, and Carla were already out on a job and Lucy hadn't thought of asking anyone else so she decided to try going on a solo mission for once. The job seemed relatively easy enough, he had thought at the time when he looked at the paper while she was talking to Mirajane. It seemed like she'd be back in just two days time, but the days passed and she hadn't been back yet. Erza, Gray, Wendy, and Carla had all come back already and they had started to worry as well. Once it reached a week, he knew they needed to go find her.
When they found her though, she was already gone. Poisoned, according to Erza.
Amidst his sobs, Natsu noticed a slight glow in Lucy's balled fist. He reached to see what it was, noticing how tightly she must have been holding onto it before she passed.
Silence rang through the air as Natsu held up Leo's and Virgo's keys, a warm glow emanating from them and pulsing between his fingers.
Gray watched as his friend held Lucy's keys. Out of the corner of his eyes, he noticed a book by a small puddle. Feeling as if it were calling for him, he went and picked it up. It had no title and when he opened it up and looked for a name, he saw the name was illegible due to smudging and being worn away. He flipped through the book, only to find all but one page illegible. The single page that was legible was emanating magic, albeit it was quickly fading. On the page was a spell, written in a language he'd never seen before.
Without thinking, he read the spell aloud. When Natsu heard him he ran over, irritated that he was doing something seemingly stupid in front of their friend's cold, lifeless body. As he got closer, he noticed the two keys in his hand shining brighter, responding to the spell.
It seemed like forever but he wasn't getting any closer to the ice mage at all, he glanced behind him and saw that their other friends seemed out of focus, he noticed that they were calling for him and Gray, but their voices were being drowned out by a static noise. Natsu felt himself growing sicker by the second and before he knew it, he blacked out.
He woke up moments later, his head felt like it had been split in half, he barely remembered what him and Happy were doing.
They were on a train.