A/N: Lucy will be different, but… not… different? She'll embrace her 'ladylike' side, be rather prim and proper and the like, but at the same time will be violent, with a very cold, ruthless side to her. At the same time, she'll also be the same Lucy we know and love. Mostly. But… not really. Hehe…

Lucy's POV

It's been a long time since that day… the day I left Fairy Tail and changed my life forever.

Back then, I remember being so naïve. I honestly believed that 'nakama' was forever. That they meant it when they told me I would never be left behind.

Oh, I was no stranger to betrayal, even before. No, my father and his social circle had seen to that. Raising me to be the future 'ruler' of the Heartfilia 'empire', they taught me to hide, and lie, and steal and cheat, to be stronger than my enemy and underestimated completely. They taught me to kill. And I hated it.

But I was damn good at it.

Flashback

I sat in my usual stool in the guild hall, watching glumly as my so-called 'best friend' tried to kill Lisanna via air depravation. Or something like that. They'd only been going out a few days, and if I could agree with one thing my father taught me, it was that no young lady should ever be so sexually promiscuous that early in a relationship – least of all in PUBLIC.

Deciding not to chance the rising nausea, I instead gazed mournfully at my strawberry milkshake. Mira raised an eyebrow at me as she took it away, and I mimed gagging to her, while indicating Natsu and Lisanna with my spare thumb.

Mira smirked at me, looking a little green herself, and leaned in. "At least you don't have to live with her. Natsu this… Natsu that… and the dreams…"

"No!" I gasped in horror, sympathy widened my eyes.

Seemingly unable to summon another word, Mira simply nodded once more in dismay and poured the milkshake down the sink, both of us shuddering simultaneously.

"That's disgusting." I groaned, slamming my head against the table. "Thanks a lot, Mira, I'm never gonna lose that mental image now."

"Peace." She shot over her shoulder, walking away with a smug grin at my expense.

Sneering at her in mock-anger, I stalked over to the request board, tilting my head at one that promised two rare books and a gold celestial key. Grinning at the thought of another new friend, I reached out, only to have a small, sickly-pale hand intercept mine, slamming down on the piece of paper like this was a game on snap – not to mention crushing my fingers.

I grit my teeth, snapping my head around to glare at her. "What?"

"Sorry, but I think you'll find we're taking this job." Lisanna smiled at me, sweet as sugar-cream, but I wasn't buying it.

"Come on, guys. I need the reward for this, it's a Key. Can't you just do another one?" I asked, trying to be reasonable and searching desperately to meet the others' eyes. While Erza and Grey avoided my gaze like the plague, Natsu (surprise, surprise) laughed loudly.

"Sorry, Luce," he said easily, leaning against the edge of the board and crossing his ankles, "but you snooze, you lose."

"Then why is my hand under hers?" I snarled, losing all semblance of control on my temper and dropping my voice an octave. Several of my guildmates, recognizing the danger in my tone (I only did this when I was infuriated), backed away from the now-dedicated 'splash zone'.

"Fine. You want it, you win it." Lisanna said, her voice clearly a challenge. "You and me, outside in the battle arena."

"No time like right now." I retorted, stepping right up into her space and drawing myself to my full, statuesque height in an – admittedly – plebeian show of physical intimidation. I heard Natsu laugh, and my left hand flexed, breaking a piece of wood off the request board and then splintering it further when he spoke.

"C'mon, Luce, you don't really think you stand a chance, do ya?" he sounded so genuinely concerned, it made me want to rip his throat out. With my teeth.

"Why don't we even the odds a bit?" my voice took on a sulty tone, almost too confident, and I could tell straight away Natsu was interested. "The whole of Team Natsu, against me." Cocking my head to one side, I smiled my best 'doll smile'.

"Sure, you're on." Natsu cried before Erza and Grey could react, both of them having opened their mouths – whether to protest or agree vehemently, I would never know. "I'm all fired up!"

Smirking to myself, I followed them out of the hall and into the light.

They had no idea what they were in for.

General POV

Lucy stood across the court from her former teammates, the space between them seeming both huge and tiny at the same time. Relaxed, she watched as Lisanna chewed Natsu out for trying to bring his lunch with him onto the field and smirked. This would be too easy.

Breathing in, she sighed as though wistful, and as she did so, released her magical energy to the audience.

Natsu stumbled slightly under the sudden weight – it felt like the whole world had gotten heavier on him, pressing him down into the ground. A quick glance around him showed everyone else to be in the same condition. 'But where is it coming from?'

Natsu concentrated, and realised that it seemed to be coming from in front of him but… well, there was no way, was there? She couldn't be that strong. No one was stronger than Team Natsu!

But… it was true. She was stronger. Stronger than him, Erza, Grey and Lisanna. Probably stronger than all of them combined! Natsu looked up, at her hair floating around her shoulders and her suddenly night-sky eyes (think really dark, inky purple with silver specks – like stars *_*) and realized – he had probably just made the biggest mistake of his life.

And he had absolutely no idea what to do about that.

Lucy's POV

I breathed deeply, the stench of fear, nervousness and regret souring the air in the most delicious way. I licked my lips in anticipation, smirking when they shuddered at the act. Whether out of revulsion or fear, I could not tell, but it didn't matter.

I didn't care anymore.

I felt more than heard Mira announce the start of the battle, and all at once released my magical energy, knowing my hair was probably flying all over the place and making a general mess of itself. I paid it no mind, finding the picture in front of me to be far more pleasing to look at.

Lisanna had fallen flat on her face; practically eating the dirt, while Natsu was making constipated moose sounds while he pushed at what he probably felt was an invisible barrier pushing down on him. He wasn't wrong, it just wasn't right.

Erza was forced to her knees, kneeling as though pledging her service to me – and wasn't that a rich mental image – whereas Grey seemed to be more interested in performing a limbo dance than actually fighting me.

I smiled – I had taken to gravity magic like a duck to water and, despite my anger at the fact that my several month long disappearance had gone completely unnoticed by my so-called nakama, I was also grateful because it had given me the time to truly master (to the best of my abilities) this beautiful form of magic.

Watching as Erza wedged her shoulder under Grey's in order to push him back upright, I widened my stance, raising my fists to rest in front of my face and allowed myself to be… weightless.

General POV

Natsu ran at Lucy as soon as he was able, rearing his fist back and lighting it on fire. Everyone watched as Lucy stood, seemingly waiting for him. Suddenly, she blurred.

Lucy's POV

Changing my center of gravity, I all but flew towards Natsu. As soon as I reached him, passing him on his left, my own left hand swung out, caught him by the throat and lifted him into the air, slamming him into the ground with as much non-lethal force as I could muster, firmly increasing his gravity and leaving him completely immobile.

I could hear him gasping for air – he probably felt like his lungs were being crushed, but I knew he would be okay. I couldn't really be bothered with Grey and Erza, I just shifted their gravity and sent them flying into opposite walls, unconscious upon impact.

Narrowing in on my prey, I lifted both her and myself into the air. It was a strange experience – because I removed all gravitational forces on myself (and my victim), we floated in any which direction. As we did so, I felt my hair shift so it was falling down the right side of my head and knew which way we were up – my hair would always fall towards the ground, a little talent I developed to help me keep my sense of direction, otherwise it was like being underwater with no idea which way was up, and could be as befuddling as Lisanna was obviously finding it, if her panicked flailing was anything to go by.

Gently forcing her to flow towards me, I stopped her inches away from my face.

"Don't you ever get in my way again."

Lisanna's POV

It was hard to breathe; I was so scared I was hyperventilating. I knew my fate rested firmly in Lucy's hands, and I wanted to cry.

The feeling of weightlessness threw me, and I flailed around, wildly searching for a right way up. I noticed all of Lucy's hair was flowing in the same direction, which was odd given my bob was sticking up like I had just been electrocuted. In a moment of utter clarity, I followed the flow of her hair and saw the ground, relieved to discover we were hovering horizontally over it.

It only took a few moments for that information to sink in, and barely half a second for me to start panicking all over again.

Feeling myself move, I tensed up, my breaths coming shorter and shorter. I was moving closer to Lucy, and I didn't stop until we were so close I could feel her breathe on my skin, and her hair brushed my face gently. I craned my neck as far backwards as I could, nodding frantically in response to her statement, and sobbing in relief when I was suddenly – mercifully – dropped back onto the ground.

Lucy touched down elegantly in front of me, and I watched as she walked away, frowning bitterly when Natsu, barely able to move, still tried to reach out to her, crying out her name in a desperate last-ditch effort to gain her attention. It wasn't that I hated her; I just hated how much he liked her.

I hated how no matter what we spoke about together, he would talk about her. I hated how, whenever we were on a mission, he would miss her. I hated the way she used to hug him when both of them said goodbye, and I hated knowing that he snuck into her room and slept in her bed. With her. In her bed, with her in it.

I never thought I'd be the jealous one, but I spent my entire Edolas life dreaming of the day I could come home, to Mira and Elfman and Natsu and Happy and the rest of the guild. I hated that they'd moved on, that Natsu and Happy loved Lucy so much.

I really, truly hated it.

Lucy's POV

I stalked up to Mira, raising a hand to catch the request paper that flew over to me and held it out to her, nodding for her to sign it off to me.

"And don't expect me back."

Flashback End

Lucy's POV

Now, over five years later (and let's say they were all 16 when it happened, kay?) I was shadow-master of a small guild named 'Daemon Angelus (latin for Demon Angel), though we were commonly known as Angels and Demons. Our guild insignia was that of a Nephilim, with a feathered wing on the left and a skeletal wing on the right. In her right hand, alongside the angelic wing, she held a scythe, while in her left hand she held a large axe. Her face was hidden by her wings, as was her body (I simply insisted it was female) and the picture ended where her wings did, no body drawn in. The top of a drooping head could be seen atop where her wings crossed over, but that was the only defining feature. My favourite aspect of it, though, was the broken, thorny halo that shackled her wrists together in front of her, forcing the powerful weapons to hang limply from her hands.

Currently, I was seated in our makeshift Guild Hall – which was honestly a small campsite in the middle of nowhere, courtesy of our stand-in guild master Victoria. We had a fire going and our sleeping bags set up around it, more than warm enough thanks to Kuro's fire magic keeping ours at a comfortable level.

I sighed softly, staring into the flames as though they could answer the question of life itself. I felt like something was going to change, but I didn't know what.

I didn't know that I wanted to, either.

A/N: Hey all! Thanks to everyone who's gotten this far! Please tell me what you think! I would really appreciate everyone's opinions! Don't be alarmed – the story won't change too much and it'll all lead to the same place so there should be no need to panic. My plan is just to rewrite each chapter as they exist in order to be able to rekindle my passion for this story, and mature the story itself. Thanks to everyone who has read or been a fan of my story(s) in the past. I greatly appreciate all your love and support and will do my best to try and knock these new chapters out as quickly as I can.

All my love
Kodochi