Chapter 1 – The Beginning
It was a bright and sunny day. The guild was filled with joyous people, everyone seemed so happy and full of life. Team Natsu had just arrived from a mission. As usual it was quite chaotic, Natsu and Gray were fighting most of the time, Erza was screaming at them, Lucy, Wendy and Carla were peacefully talking to each other. The mission was quite simple, get to the mountains and slay a huge beast that kept disrupting a village nearby. It wasn't all too hard, the beast was easily slain with great effort and teamwork.
A tired Lucy was sitting in her usual spot at the bar, resting her head on her arms at the table. Her eyes were closed, she was in a deep state of thought, so deep that she didn't even hear Mirajane in the background talking to her.
"Hey Lucy are you there… Lucy…Luuuuuucy?" said Mira while lightly tapping her on her arm.
"Hmmm? Sorry, what were you saying, I was just lost in my thoughts." Lucy answered in a quiet and tired tone.
"What's wrong Lucy? You seem troubled." Mira asked.
"Oh it's… nothing... really. No, it's nothing important" Lucy mumbled.
"It's okay; you can tell me what's bothering you." Mira says with a kind smile.
"Well, I've been thinking about taking some time off to go on a trip. But not the relaxing kind, I don't know why but I've had this feeling that I'm not pulling my weight in the team. I really want to spend some time training, expanding my magic range and maybe improving on some flaws that I have." Lucy answered.
"That's an interesting thought, but you shouldn't let the other intimidate you so much. I think your very strong in your own way, and you have proven that in times of need. But why do you feel like your not doing so well?" Mira asks with a concerned tone.
"Honestly I don't know… lately I've felt like I have gotten weaker, for some reason it feels like it's getting harder and harder to summon my spirits. Mostly I feel like I'm just the damsel in distress, monsters going after me and it's usually Erza or Natsu saving my skin. I think this trip would be good for me, to spend some time for myself'' Lucy replied.
Out of nowhere a wild Erza joins Lucy and Mira at the bar.
"So, what are you guys talking about?" Erza said.
"Well, I was thinking about going on a trip to train and Mira is helping me decide" Lucy replied.
"Oh, yes how wonderful… a training trip, we should go together. I need some time to relax and have fun. This would be a good opportunity. " Erza said with a grin on her face.
"Well actually, umm… I was going to go alone, I really want to spend some time on my own and do some training as well you know…" Lucy said
"Very well then, I agree with your choice, maybe next time we can go on a trip together" Erza said while eating strawberry cake.
"Yeah, maybe next time we can go on a fun trip… I'm gonna go talk to master about my plans so I'll see you guys later, bye!" Lucy said as she was going towards master's office.
"Bye, see you soon!" Mira and Erza said, as they were getting ready to go to their homes.
Lucy walked towards the master's office and knocked on his door.
"Come in" Makarov says from inside.
"Master, I would like to go on a short training trip, it would only be a week or so. It won't take long." Lucy said calmly.
"Oh, a training trip… and what brought this on? Makarov asked with a bit of a surprise.
After Lucy explained why she wants to go and train, Makarov approves of her request and wishes her luck, as well as a goodbye.
Lucy left with a smile and made her way to her apartment. Her first instinct upon arrival was to check if anyone broke in while she was gone, as this happens more than one would expect. Luckily no one was there and the atmosphere was very peaceful and quiet. After taking a long, well deserved, hot soothing bath, Lucy starts packing her bag, she didn't put in too much, only the necessary things. After she had carefully packed her bag, Lucy drops down into bed comfortably looking out the window at the beautiful starry sky. She is once again lost in her thoughts. Wondering about whether she did the right thing, what she is going to do for training and what if she doesn't achieve anything and of course some worst case scenarios. After an hour of thinking, a great idea pops into her head; she will take on a job from the request board and that would add for some money as well as some more training experience for her. After that great idea she happily goes to sleep.
She wakes up early in the morning, happy, excited and ready to go on her trip and spending some well deserved time by herself. She changes out of her pajamas, grabs her bag and walks out of her apartment. Not bothering to lock it, because she has a feeling that either Natsu or someone else from the team is gonna crash at her place at some point.
Lucy made her way to the guild; it was empty, cold and silent. No one was there, probably because it was so early in the morning. She heads over the request board and takes a look around, some many jobs, so little time and so many rewards. After about 15 minutes of looking around, Lucy finds the perfect job for her, with huge sparkling eyes, Lucy is quite excited. She then goes over to the bar, where Mira was standing cleaning some mugs. Mira looks up and sees a very joyous and bright Lucy, she was quite surprised to see her here.
"Did you change your mind about the training trip?" Mira asks with curiosity.
"Nope, I am about to head out, but I thought it would be a good idea to also do a job for some training and I would be able to get some money too, it's a win-win situation" Lucy said with with a big grin.
"Oh that's a good idea, then I won't see you in a while, I will definitely miss you and I wish you all the best on your journey!" Mira said with that beautiful voice of hers.
Lucy then left the guild and had started her journey, she slowly made her way towards the train station. She was admiring the guild from a distance and stood there for a while, taking in the beautiful atmosphere of this peaceful town. Lucy's train had arrived and she was in for a very, very long train ride.
Meanwhile a few hours have past and the guild was already full with more people in it. Wendy walks up to the bar with Carla and notices that the always cheerful and happy Celestial mage wasn't sitting at the bar in her usual spot. Wendy sits on one of the stools and asks Mira if she has seen Lucy anywhere.
"Sorry but Lucy isn't going to be here for a while, she just left this morning to go on a training trip by herself. But she will be back soon." Mira said with her usual smile.
"Aw… I wanted to ask her if she wanted to go on a job with me, it had a really good pay and it required a celestial mage. Well… I guess I can go on a job with her when she comes back." Wendy said with a sigh.
"Oh, was the job by any chance the one in Sotrial Town, where some people needed a celestial mage to take care of some beasts or spirits?" Mira asked.
"Yeah, that's the job I wanted to do with Lucy, why?" Wendy asked while fearing the worst.
"Oh, what a coincidence because that the job she took before leaving a few hours ago" Mira replied smiling as usual.
When Wendy was about to say something, Carla interrupted her while she was seeing a vision. Her face gave away a confused expression. Wendy and Mira were quiet in that moment, waiting for something to happen. What is Carla seeing? Wendy gives Carla a worried look and asks her if everything is alright. But Carla insists and says it wasn't anything important.
Carla went over to another table while Wendy and Mira were still talking, Carla started having a conversation with herself, trying to figure out what was going on in her vision. There was a very dark room, so dark it was too difficult for Carla to see anything. There was a hooded figure, wearing a black robe, it was hard to distinguish anything. Only part of this figures face was visible, the mouth and the nose. The mouth was covered in what seemed like it was blood, little droplets dripping down to the floor. The image flashes and its seen that this mysterious figure had its hands chained together, attached to the wall. This person was lying on the floor, lying in a small puddle of blood, the hooded figure seemed to be breathing, but at a very quiet and slow pace... the vision suddenly ends. Carla doesn't know what to do with this. Was it some kind of warning? Was something bad going to happen soon?
She decided to ignore her vision for now and think about it later, she didn't want to worry anyone, so she decided to stay discreet about this until the time seemed right, until Carla was able to gather more information about what was happening in that vision, was the person in distress? Who was that mysterious figure?
