Strength and Courage

Chapter 1:

She was a mess.

Her hair looked like a rats nest, and her eyes were so red from crying that it looked like she was possessed. The guild had disbanded two weeks ago out of nowhere, and her fairy tail family had left just as quickly, Cana being the last one to leave.

After waving her off, Lucy had gone home and hadn't come back out until basic human needs, like food and water made her. Why would she? The only family she had just disappeared into thin air.

To all that saw her, it looked like she was grieving a lost one, and Lucy didn't bother correcting them.

It was true enough.

But looking at herself in the mirror now, a small tendril of… something gripped her.

Shame.

Lucy had prided herself on being optimistic. Bad things might happen, but they couldn't last forever. Sooner or later the sun would shine through the clouds. So in the past, she had held her head high and worked towards fixing the problem.

But here she was, looking half-dead after crying so much that even Juvia wouldn't be able to rival her. All her friends had left to go train so they could protect the people they love.

But not her.

And wasn't that her problem? Even as a Fairy Tail wizard, she had always had to be saved. By Natsu, or Gray, or even Erza. And she had never thought that was a problem. Because although she didn't offer much to the team in terms of raw power, she knew that her intelligence would be missed if she left.

(Sorry, Natsu. But it was the truth…)

But intelligence didn't cut it when Aquarius sacrificed herself so that Lucy could live, did it? In the end, she wasn't strong enough to save her first friend, the one who was with her when her mum died, when her father refused to have anything to do with her. Lucy couldn't save her.

The broken key still hung on her key chain.

But.

Maybe she could do something?

The half buried memory came to Lucy as she slowly brushed her hair, throughly disgusted with herself for letting it get this gross. With each knot that came untangled (and there were a lot- a disadvantage of long hair) an idea grew, and with it her resolve.

Grabbing her key chain off her bedside table, she unhooked two keys, one gold and one silver before hesitating and then grabbing a much, much shorter gold key.

Squeezing the short gold key in her hand and ignoring the uncomfortable jagged edge, Lucy cleared her throat.

"Open, gate of the lion! Leo!"

A familiar and comforting gold cloud appeared, and before she could even begin to address him, he lunged at her.

For a breathtaking millisecond, she thought he was angry about Aquarius, but her fears were soon put to rest as the lion pulled her into a massive hug.

After quickly giving her check over (which made her self conscious of her ratty clothes) Loke grinned at her. "Finally! I was beginning to get worried that you had forgotten about us. I was almost ready to check up on you with my own power, but Virgo said to give you some time to… process things."

Lucy managed a small, wobbly smile at her friend. "Sorry. I've been… preoccupied."

With crying my eyes out uselessly.

Before he could say anything, she took a deep breath. The broken key in her hand seemed to dig into her skin.

"How's Aquarius?"

The leader of the zodiac rolled his eyes. "As fine as you'd expect. She's happy that none of her dates will be interrupted anymore."

He hesitated, "Though she does have a message for you, though."

The blonde looked up from where she had been studying the ground.

"Really?"

"Yeah. She wanted me to tell you that…"

The lion paused dramatically.

"You better not call Scorpio often on dates, otherwise, and I quote 'she would find away to get here and kill you herself'"

Lucy stared at the celestial spirit in shock, before laughing then going silent, considering the words.

"If only…"

Loke sighed. The laughter was nice while it lasted but.

"You know she isn't dead, right? And even if she was-though she isn't- it wouldn't be your fault in the slightest. You did what you had to do, and even summoned three sprints at once!"

The mage turned away, and Loke narrowed his eyes at her before deciding that they had gone far enough with that topic today.

"Enough of this sad business! What can I do for you today, my princess? And may I say you look beautiful today!"

Lucy relaxed slightly. An over flirtatious lion she could deal with. This, at least was normal.

"Cut it with the flirting. I thought that was what you had Aries for? And, well." She took a calming breath. "What happens to a key after it breaks?"

Loke spluttered, a small blush on his face before recovering dramatically.

"No- one, be it human or spirit could ever compare to you my princess! And… after a key breaks, the Celestial Spirit King forges a new one and drops it somewhere on Earthland."

Lucy nodded. What Loke said matched up with the distant memory of her mother telling her about it.

Still. This meant it was possible to make up for not saving Aquarius and to get her friend back!

"Do you know anything else? What about where Moustache Face dropped it?"

Loke groaned. "I'd really appreciate it if you stopped calling our leader and the most powerful spirit in the realm 'Moustache Face'. Even if he does like you, it still makes me nervous."

"And I'm sorry. I don't know where the key would be, though most likely it would be near or in a body of water."

Lucy nodded, choosing not to acknowledge his earlier comment. That was more helpful than what she was expecting. And thankfully, she had a spirit which specialised in knowing everything to do with celestial spirits.

Loke raised an eyebrow at her determined face, before his eyes widened in realisation as she summoned the silver key she had in hand.

"Open, gate of the southern cross! Crux!"

With a puff of silver smoke, a old spirit that seemed to be sleeping in the air with his legs crossed appeared. His head was shaped like a cross and he had a white moustache.

Walking up to the spirit, Lucy tapped on him gently, only to get no reaction. After trying various ways to get him to wake up (much to Loke's amusement) she finally resorted to, like always, yelling at him.

And like always, it worked.

Thankfully.

"Hi, Grandpa Crux. I was wondering if you knew where Aquarius's key was dropped."

The old spirit smiled kindly at her.

"Of course I will check Mistress Lucy, but I have to keep inside the laws of the spirit realm. I may not be able to find the key."

Lucy nodded in acceptance with his answer, glancing quickly over to Loke to see that he was nodding to the other spirits words.

"If you could just try, it would be a great help."

I have to get her back!

Please.

Crux closed his eyes and his head dipped, looking like he was sleeping although she knew better. At least she hoped he wasn't sleeping. It was a bit hard to tell sometimes. After waiting for around 5 minutes in companionable silence with her lion, Crux gave a start and jerked awake.

At his expression, her shoulders slumped and Loke put her arms around her, for once not trying to take advantage of the close contact.

The cross spirit sighed, knowing that she had already seen that he had been unable to answer her question. But he did manage to find something that could help her.

"Unfortunately, the location of Aquarius's key is outside of my knowledge. The spirit king is keeping it silent. However, I could find out where you could go to get the location."

Lucy looked up quickly at him, her eyes wide with a silent question, and even Loke looked confused at the loophole that Crux had found. The Celestial Spirit King usually did a better job at hiding things if he didn't want them to be found.

"The Library Of Sorcery. I presume you remember where that is from the eclipse incident?"

Lucy nodded, her eyes gleaming. "In the forest near the Blue Pegasus guild right?"

Not knowing what they were talking about, Loke scowled, confused. Every time he asked about the time when his memory loss happened, Lucy waved it off and made an excuse about it.

"I still don't know what you are talking about…" The most powerful member of the zodiac mumbled under his breath.

It was annoying.

Both the cross spirit and the celestial mage ignored the lion, instead discussing the quickest way there before Lucy thanked her oldest spirit and and closed his gate with a determined look, clutching the only key in her hand that she hadn't (couldn't) summon.

She would get her friend back.

And woe beside anyone who got in her way.

A/N I know this is a well done trope but this is just something I'm doing for fun. Updates will be all over the place sorry.