"Well my dad can take down your dad!" Lucas Fullbuster yelled at the rest of their group. He was losing an argument, and this was his go to for saving face.

"Yeah right! My dad could beat up your dad any day of the week!" Nashi Dragneel yelled back.

"Well my mom can take down both of your dads," Mica Fernandez bragged.

"She couldn't beat my mom AND dad," Lucas countered.

"But my mom and dad could beat up your mom and dad," said Mica.

"Oh yeah?"

"Yeah!"

"Well, let's go ask them," Lucas challenged, "I bet my parents could beat up your parents."

"Fine," Mica agreed and they stomped off to where Erza and Gray were chatting at a table in their guildhall with Mira and Juvia, Nashi following quietly behind. This was one fight she couldn't join, simply because she only had one parent. She knew her dad was strong, possibly the single strongest person in the guild, but he always fought alone.

"MOM!" Both kids shouted, "Tell him you're stronger!" the three adults at the table looked confused.

"Okay, one at a time, what do you want?" Erza asked, obtaining obedience with a single command.

"We want to know, out of all the children here, who has the strongest parents?" Mica answered with confidence. If it wasn't him, then it was Ellie-Marie, the daughter of Laxus and Mira, and he could accept that, but no way was it Fullbuster's parents.

The adults all shared a look at the table and with a single voice they said, "Nashi."

"What?" The two boys asked, horrified, but they looked nowhere near as stricken as Nashi herself.

"What are you talking about?" Nashi demanded, angry, "Erza beats up my dad all the time." Nashi thought she knew what they were talking about and they had better not be.

"Sure, flamehead gets his butt handed to him routinely, but him and Lucy? None of the rest of us would stand a chance." Gray said casually, seeming to surprise himself.

"That's a lie!" Nashi shouted, surprising everyone in the guildhall, "My mom was a weak, stupid, wizard that couldn't finish a job. She was a drunk that disgraced the name Fairy Tail and removed her mark herself! She left me and dad and died in a train accident—" Nashi found herself unable to continue as she was suddenly enveloped in a cage of ice. Everyone looked to Gray, who was obviously angry, but trying not to show it. It was a standard rule in Fairy Tail that you don't beat up on the kids.

"Someone had to shut the brat up," he muttered, "How did Lucy end up with such a stupid kid anyway?" Juvia put a hand on her husband's shoulder, making him relax, even if only a little bit. Inside the cage you could make out a thirteen year old girl summoning her magic with a golden circle, only to have nothing happen. Then they got to watch her panic and start shouting.

"Did you add a magic canceling rune to it Gray?" Levy asked, walking from her spot on the other side of the guild, her long braid swinging behind her.

"Nope, it was too instinctive, didn't have time to put inscription runes in it," Gray answered, not caring, "We can sort her magic later, now why on earth does she think Lucy was a drunk that died in train accident?" Anger crept back into his voice and not even Juvia could stop it this time.

"My guess, and yours too if took a second to think before acting," Levy scolded, pushing her glasses onto the top of her head, "is that she looked up Lucy Dragneel in the library. That is exactly what Lucy herself would have done. Remember that guy that wanted to kill Lucy?"

"Which one?" Erza asked with a sigh, sparing a smile for the other two, now terrified, children, "Lucy stood up for a lot of things, and she had a lot of enemies." Levy answered with a little laugh.

"That's true, the one that swore he was going to use Lucy's ashes to destroy the celestial realm. We faked a death and a funeral to flush him out for a job." Gray snapped his fingers.

"Oh, that one. He was a fifth cousin of Lucy's or something that hated all celestial spirits for helping Lucy's mom instead of his mom. We made the reporter's print that story so he would come to her funeral service. She was so mad. Didn't she kick his butt to the last century?"

"Yeah, he became Maurice the odd, always raving about a celestial goddess," Mira laughed, remembering how the book she read her siblings as children changed overnight to include that particular legend.

"Wait, she actually sent him into the past? I thought time magic was lost and super dangerous?" Mica finally felt the courage to speak again, he wasn't used to being wrong.

"Oh, it is," his mom grinned, "but by that time Lucy could make her way around a time spell blind-folded. He may have also specifically threatened Aries, I think that is what set her off."

"Juvia thinks we don't talk about Lucy very much," Juvia commented quietly, shutting the rest of the adults up.

"Umm, Dad? I think Nashi is dying," Lucas said casually, internally freaking out. The little blonde girl may be annoying, but she was also one of the only friends Lucas had.

"Oh right," Gray said, letting his spell collapse into snow. A coughing Nashi was collapsed in the middle of it.

"Thank a lot, I may not be a fire dragon slayer, but I can't exactly take cold you know," she said, coughing and glaring.

"Now you listen here Nashi," Levy scolded, "You're mother was the bravest fairy in the entire history of the guild, she was also one of the most powerful. I'm willing to bet none of your spirits would answer because they loved her too much to get you out of punishment for talking bad about her. She has saved their lives several times over, as well as ours, and anyone who speaks poorly about her is going to get the punishment." Everyone shuddered at the thought of "the punishment."

"Even Taurus? No, even Aquarius?" Nashi asked, dumbfounded.

"Especially Aquarius kid, that mermaid was her first spirit ever, they got separated for a while and Lucy fought tooth and nail to get her back." Gray said, folding his arms "You should have just asked one of us about your mom if you were curious. The only articles Lucy wanted of herself in the News after she was married was a decoy to reveal a man intent on destroying the celestial world. Didn't even want a marriage announcement, but we convinced her anyways." Nashi flushed with embarrassment.

"Dad would always get sad when I asked why I didn't have a mom," she muttered, kicking at the ground, "I didn't want him to think he wasn't enough." Gray sighed.

"That's how Lucy ended up with a kid that stupid, she married Natsu. Look, your dad gets sad because Lucy was so incredible, so amazing, that every single day he feels like a part of himself is missing. We all do, she made her way into each and every one of our pasts, and brought us into the light. She was the first person I opened up to because I wanted to, not because I needed to join a guild or was seeking revenge."

"Juvia would never have joined or felt welcome at Fairy Tail if Lucy hadn't forgiven Juvia for kidnapping her," Juvia mused, pleased with the memory, "Juvia would never have gotten the courage to ask Gramps if Lucy hadn't called her a friend and preformed Fairy Tail's first Unison raid." The children were shocked by the story, unison raids weren't uncommon in their guild for their parent's generation, but they knew there was a time when that skill was revered. Or maybe they were just unsure as to why their aunt Juvia had kidnapped Nashi's mother in the first place. Several more adults had come around to their table at this point as well.

Gray nodded to his son, "you're named after her you know. If you were a girl you would have been Lucy."

"Are we sharing stories about Lucy now?" Elfman asked, from the next table over. "Lucy was the manliest man in the entire guild. If it wasn't for the Phantom Lord incident I would never have regained my magic, not to mention the way she totally kicked Bixlow's ass during Fantasia," he raised his mug to the remnants of Team Natsu.

"Got that right," Bixlow said from his crouched position on the bar, "Cosplaying Queen was tough as nails, and that was when she was at her weakest, not even a year in the guild yet. My favorite story is when she and Cana beat me and Freed with Bikini Babes, that was one fight I didn't mind losing." He laughed his usual crazy laugh, and suddenly the younger generation was bombarded with stories about how Lucy, this member they had barely recognized existed, saved, was saved, and helped just about everyone.

Laxus felt the need to regain control, and hopefully get his daughter out of the onslaught of stories. Not that she seemed disturbed, she was actually the one who seemed to be having the most fun.

"Everyone relax," the guild master said, and they obeyed, "Lucy was important, She has three names, Lucy Dragneel, Lucy of Fairy Tail, and Lucy Heartphila. This guild would not be here without her. She had more guts than the rest of us combined, and always had strength to spare for her family. If you want to know more, ask one of us, or go look up her names in the guild histories. I just want you to know kid, if your dad had heard you say anything bad about your mother you would have been knocked out cold in three seconds flat. We know, we counted. So don't go spreading tales."

Nashi nodded, thoroughly reprimanded, if a little confused.

"Course I knew her best," Gray bragged. One minute later a brawl broke out and Nashi was able to sneak away to the guild library. She was just about to type Lucy of Fairy Tail into the wizard's library assistant, when a voice interrupted her.

"Erza informed me she saw you sneak down here, you know, before going to punch Elfman in the face. Don't worry, I know how much you want to discover this on your own, but I have something that may help. I was going to give them to you when you were older, there is some dark stuff in your mother's past, but I think you are wise enough to know when you will be ready. Be careful with them." Levy drew the rune for bag, but it had an unfamiliar line drawn through it, and a box full of letters fell into Nashi's arms.

"What are these?"

"Letters," Levy answered simply, "Your mom wrote them to her mother, your grandmother, as she was growing up. Like I said, your mom had some dark things in her past, and you might want to read them with Natsu. It'll be cathartic for him." Nashi looked onto the pot of gold dropped into her arms as Levy turned to leave, but Levy stopped herself at the door.

"We don't talk about her… because of her death," Levy's voice cracked, "because each one of us feels like we failed her, but if you want to know who knew her best, after your father of course, they are all sitting on the key ring slung around your belt. She loved those spirits so much; she was stupid for them. She spoiled them rotten, I am almost afraid of how you would have turned out if she lived past that horrible day." There was a joyless laugh. Though she was still in the room, at the door, it was only now that Levy turned to face the thirteen-year-old, tears in her eyes, "Fairy Tail is known for cheating fate, for beating destiny into submission against our will to protect and love each other, but that day we lost. We lost hard." The solid script wizard, famous throughout Fiore and surrounding nations, left the room in tears, and the box still felt like gold, but now Nashi could feel the weight of it. Her arms ached, despite her strength, against the secrets carried in the box.

She set it down and pushed it under the table, not ready to face that price, and turned back to the Wizard's Assistant. Lucy of Fairy Tail, she entered into the search engine. The famous Wizard Lates developed it from his archive magic, and gave a prototype to Fairy Tail, only to have Levy guard it religiously in the bowels of the library. Now Nashi waited as the books containing that name flew from all over the library to land in a pile on the table in front of her.

She started with the guild history book, and opened to the year she was born. There was everyone she knew and loved, some people she remembered leaving the guild, and Gramps, who died two years ago. Finding a picture of her mother was easier than expected, her dad had one arm slung around her shoulder and the other on her pregnant belly, her mom's arm was slung around Levy even as Lucy smirked and pushed, (was that Leo?) with her foot. He seemed to be trying to woo Lisanna, but it wasn't working. In Nashi's mind, she could see the moment of the photo playing out. Lucy would push Leo with her foot, Leo would crash onto Lisanna's table, Natsu would laugh, Gray would point and laugh at Leo, as he was sitting next to Lisanna, and soon enough a brawl would start which the pregnant women would run away from and the guys would enjoy.

Lucy seemed so lively, like the picture was taken yesterday instead of thirteen years ago. Flipping through, all of Lucy's pictures were like that, all of them candid shots with just about every member of the guild, and a couple of her smirking after playing some kind of prank. Nashi had her dad's charcoal eyes, but the shape was her mom's, and her hair was the same blonde. She looked through some of the earlier books, and noticed events that were often talked of around the guild, like their first Grand Magic Games, and she didn't know her mom had participated every year before she got pregnant. And there was some girl that looked just like her doll Michelle, maybe her mom had it made to look like this friend so that they could always be close to each other. Then there was a gap, and while it was logical that her mom had been part of the time-skip, Nashi had never connected the two events. Her Mom was on Tenrou when the second darkest guild in Fiore attacked, she was partnered with Cana instead of her dad, so it must have been before they started dating.

The next guild history was from seven years previous and had the announcement of the missing members, guilds from all over talking about her parents and their friends. Holy ice on a watermelon, that was the same Hibiki Lates that developed Wizard's Assistant mourning the loss of the Fairies they had fought alongside against the Oracion Seis, Lucy Heartphilia in particular! Before the sad news clippings, there was a huge party, apparently, Aunt Lisanna had been on a trip to somewhere called Edolas and they were celebrating her return.

Going even further back, Nashi noticed that Leo was in the pictures, but he looked much different from the Lion she could summon from her keys. Lucy also appeared to have several more keys than the ones Nashi had, Aquarius, Leo, and Capricorn. A quick check showed ten golden keys and several silver ones on her waist in the first picture. Going back to Leo, she noticed he was rarely in the guild pictures the way she was used to him looking. There was no explanation of the change though.

There were no more guild histories after that, so Nashi figured that must have been the year her mom joined. Nashi deserved to have Gray put her in an ice cube, in fact, she should have been left there longer. The real information had been at her finger tips the entire time, but she was so concerned about making other people feel bad that she only used the public library, she was such an idiot.

The next was a book about celestial magic, written about five years ago, and Nashi flipped to the index to find where her mother was mentioned; there was an entire chapter on her.

In the course of studying Celestial Magic, one would be doing a great disservice not to mention the most talented Wizard of this age: Miss Lucy Heatphilia. The hereditary magic was strong on her mother's side, but Lucy was in a category of her own. Not only the first Wizard in the past five hundred years to summon three spirits at once, she has also been declared Celestial Friend by the Spirit King himself. On top of that she has visited the celestial spirit world on more than one occasion, mastered the individual attack magic known as the Metiora spells, can manipulate the border of worlds to travel use a new form of time magic, and has been the only known wizard to have ever wielded all twelve zodiac keys at once. We will be going in depth to each of these accomplishments…

It went on and on, Nashi finally understood what Gail meant by being lost in a book. Nashi had always been too impatient for reading before, but this was fascinating. Her mother had literally tested the very edges of celestial magic, and it mentioned she reached so deep that she hit the source of magic, but it didn't say anything more than that. The next three chapters were on some guy named Neville, but those weren't interesting. The book also mentioned that she was adept at an unprecedented use of the celestial world in the form of stable time spells, but it stayed focused on the celestial magic. If Nashi became half the wizard her mother was, she would be a force to be reckoned with. No wonder everyone had answered that Lucy and Natsu were the most powerful parents.

Her mother was a real person, not some shadowy loser, but someone who worked hard and laughed and played pranks, someone who had substance, who sat at the bar and talked to others about their day. Lucy Dragneel walked the same way home that Nashi Dragneel did, and used to balance on the riverside with a niccola following close behind, though Nashi had yet to make a contract with that spirit, it was kind of weird. Lucy had scars, Lucy had a signature hairstyle, and Lucy had a family in Fairy Tail that loved her. Nashi had a mother.

There were several Sorcerer Weeklies that followed, but looking at her mom posing in a bikini was weird, so she skipped over those.

The next book was a picture book that had a child's handwriting, Lucy of Fairy Tail, written inside the front cover. It was a short story about a girl who went about collecting keys, looking for happiness, only to make everyone else unhappy as she focused on her goal. Weird book, but maybe when she had a look at the letters she would understand why her mom owned this book. There was one final book in the stack, and this one surprised Nashi most of all. It wasn't a history or newspaper, it was a novel.

"Friendship Caught on Fire. By Lucy of Fairy Tail." Her mother was a novelist? How had she missed that? She tucked the book under her arm to take home as well as a couple of guild histories, the guild mark on her arm flashing as it let her leave with the book and the box of letters. Jumping through a window she managed to avoid her nosy friends and start heading for her home in the woods.