DISCLAIMER: Fairy Tail is owned by Hiro Mashima, not me
Chapter one: The Maze
"Hey Natsu! Come here!" Lucy called, standing at the job board.
Natsu walked up to the board.
"What's up Luce?"
"I found us the perfect job! The job even asks for us personally!" She pointed at the job request.
"Sweet! Then let's do it" Natsu grinned, grabbing the request.
"Hey Mira. Me and Luce wanna take this job." He handed the request to her with a smile.
She looked down at the request with a grin.
"I know you guys will have… fun." She giggled as Lucy walked up to the bar counter.
"Well… Good luck finding that precious item. " She said pouring another beer for Cana.
"Well, I guess we should head out then. We need to get there ASAP." Lucy grabbed Natsu by the arm, almost dragging him.
"Bye guys!" Mira waved as they ran out the main entrance. As soon as they were out of her sight, she quickly hurried to the second floor. At a round table sat the silhouettes of various different mages.
"Project 'Celestial Flames' is a go."
"I'm glad the job is just outside Magnolia." Natsu grinned as he hiked up the steep hill.
"And the pay is more than enough to pay my rent this month" Lucy replied, following closely behind.
They stopped at the top of the hill to rest.
"It's a really nice day today. Don't you think?" Lucy gazed and the sky as she laid under a cherry blossom tree.
"I can see Fairy Tail from here!" The dragon slayer laughed, sitting at the top of the tree.
"Hey! Get down form th-"
"What was that Luce?" He looked down at where Lucy was laying.
"Luce?" He climbed down the tree. Lucy was gone.
"LUCY!" He started to panic, until he smelt a familiar scent. But it wasn't Lucy's. He followed the scent to the other side of the hill, where their mission was supposed to be. The scent kept getting stronger and stronger until he arrived at some ancient ruins. The scent disappeared as he entered the ruins.
"Lucy!"
"Natsu! I'm over here!"
He ran towards the voice but something didn't seem right. She looked like Lucy, but she didn't smell like Lucy.
"Natsu help!" The look-a-like cried, but Natsu refused.
"You're not the real Lucy." The blonde laughed as Natsu's vision was compromised.
"What the…" He pulled the cloth that had covered his eyes, but when he did, his surroundings changed completely. He was surrounded by mirrors.
"What the fuck… Where am I?"
"You are exactly where you need to be…" A woman's voice echoed somewhere in the distance.
"Who are you? Stop hiding and show yourself!"
"Well what's the fun in that?" The voice laughed
"Fuck you!" He spit.
"You'll never survive with an attitude like that young man. You wouldn't abandon that pretty little blonde of yours, would you?" The voice teased with another laugh.
"WHAT DID YOU DO TO HER!?" He screamed, trying to break the glass walls.
"Listen closely Mr. Dragneel, she's sitting at the other end of this maze, unharmed. To get to her, you may face some unbearable challenges. Sacrifices will be made, your senses will practically be useless, and wrongful trust may kill you. Your magic will also be useless to you, for it has been prohibited. This is your mission. Lucy is the treasure you seek. Good luck." A brown haired woman in a blue dress appeared in the mirror in front of him.
"Hey!" Natsu shouted at the woman.
"Tell me where Lucy is!"
The woman walked through the glass and into the room, but when she did, her appearance changed.
"L-Lucy…"
The blonde walked up and stroked his face before kneeing him in the stomach. When he fell to his knees, she kicked him in the side of the face, making him collapse. She went to stomp on his face, but he stopped her and pushed her foot away. He stood up but was violently shoved and pinned to the wall.
"Let me go!" He tried using his magic, but he was unable. He tried to push her away but she was too strong. He felt a sharp pain shoot through his arms.
The blonde laughed as she put her chin in the crook of the pinkettes neck. She whispered softly into his ear.
"Wrongful trust may kill you and you cannot use your magic. Did you forget already?" She backed away before disappearing. When she disappeared, the glass wall behind Natsu disappeared with her. Natsu just stood there in shook and confusion. The strange woman's words bounced around in his mind. He turned to go down the hallway behind him. After two left turns and a right, he started hearing Lucy's voice again.
"Natsu!"
He hesitated before telling himself it was just a trap.
"Natsu!"
It killed him on the inside to walk away. He thought he'd be fine if he was able to ignore the voices, but that's where he thought wrong.
"LET ME GO!"
"Wendy"
"WENDY!"
"AHHHHH! NATSU HELP ME!
He chased her voice to a large room.
"NO! PLEASE!" Her voice echoed throughout the room. In the center of the room was a small table with a voice lacrima on it. He walked up and held in his hand.
"NO! DON'T DO IT! I'M BEGGING YOU PLEASE!"
He smashed it on the stone floor, stopping the voices from coming out. Without hesitation, he left the room, telling himself that the voices were traps. The voices kept crying out his name in pain, but he knew they weren't real. He thought he'd was going insane.
Levy, Wendy, Erza. All of his comrades screaming in pain.
He kept telling himself that he'd be okay…
"LET ME GO!"
"Ignore the voices…"
"GET OFF ME!"
"It's only a trap…."
"DON'T TOUCH THEM!"
"They're fake…"
"NATSU PLEASE! HELP!"
"That's not the real Wendy…"
"NO! PLEASE, NO DON'T!"
"And that's not really Mira…"
"LISANNA! MIRA!"
"They'll be okay…"
"STOP! IT HURTS!
"Happy's not there..."
"AHHHHHH!"
"Neither is Levy…"
"GRAY-SAMA!"
"Juvia's safe too…"
"Stop *Blugh* please"
"And Gray isn't dying…"
He thought it wouldn't get worse. He thought the voices were the last of the torture, until he hit a doorway. Despite the bad feeling it gave him, he entered anyway. At first, it was dark and quiet, but gradually he could see a large room filled with people all talking and having fun.
"This… This is Fairy Tail..." He could see all his friends, but someone was missing. Suddenly everyone stopped and stared at him in sorrow, regret and fear. He watched as a strange man in a black hooded cape walked passed him and up to the bar. Mira set down a glass of clear liquid on the counter in front of him. When she turned away he grabbed her ass and chuckled.
"Hey! Have some resp-" Erza marched up to the man but he stopped her.
"I wouldn't finish that sentence if I were you, Scarlet." He provoked, sipping the drink. She slowly backed away.
He slammed the empty glass on the counter.
"Hey Lucy!" Lucy stood up slowly and walked toward the man in pure fear.
"Yes... Sweetheart…"
He pulled her onto his lap aggressively and held her close.
"You smell so damn good. I wish I could smell you all the time." He slapped his hand onto her knee. She squirmed in discomfort.
"C-can't I just sit next to you instead? I-"
"Oh, so you don't want to sit with me?" He pushed her off of him, letting her fall to the ground.
"Hey asshole! What's your problem!?" Natsu yelled, but no one seemed to hear him.
"I see what's going on here. You're cheating on me aren't you!?" The man stood up.
"No! I would never!"
The man stood there silently for a moment before carefully helping the blonde onto her feet again. She dusted herself off. She smiled slightly and went to speak but the man slapped her in the face, bruising her cheek.
"Don't you ever lie to me, got it? Now see what you made me do."
"Don't touch her!" Natsu ran at the man and threw a punch at his face but went right through him.
"W-what the hell?"
The man grabbed Lucy by the neck and lifted her up.
"If the guy is in here, he'll speak up, and you better hope he does real soon."
Natsu swung another punch at the man, but went through him.
"I'm stuck in a trap"
"It was me!"
The man dropped her.
"It was me. So if you have to hurt anyone, it's me." Gray stepped up to the man.
"Gray, you didn't do anything wrong."
"I can't believe you'd cheat on me with this prick. How could you be so heartless Luce?"
"Only I call her that…."
"Well I guess he'll get what he deserves."
"Gray don't do this! He'll kill you"
Natsu watched as the man covered himself in flames almost instantly. He watched people flee the guild.
"Lucy get out of here! You know he's dangerous!" Gray pleaded as she lifted herself off the ground in pain.
The man's coat turned to ash as he leaped towards Gray with a fiery fist, exposing his spikey pink hair.
"No it can't be!"
"Natsu don't, you'll kill him!"
And with one hit directly to the chest, Gray was sent flying across the room and into the brick wall. His limb body fell to the hardwood floor.
"GRAY!" Lucy cried.
"Maybe that should teach him not to mess with Natsu Dragneel."
"NO!" Natsu screamed
"Get up. We're leaving."
"O-okay Natsu… But first could I-"
"I said now!" The fake Natsu shouted viciously. "I'm not letting you run off so you can go fuck some douchebag behind my back!" He grabbed her by the arm and dragged her towards the door.
"Ow! Natsu you're hurting me!" She tried to pull away from his tight grip, making him squeeze her arm tighter.
"Good! You deserve it you cheating little whore!"
Natsu was outraged. He couldn't watch this fake treat his best friend like shit. He couldn't stand the things he did to her, but there was nothing he could do. His body was suddenly engulfed in flames.
"DON'T TOUCH HER!" He roared, fire dancing around him.
"Lucy's safe and sound, remember" Lucy cooed softly as she was dragged out of the guild. The flames that covered Natsu faded away like the rest of the guild. Before he could understand what had really happened, he was back in the doorway.
"That was messed up… I don't get how Luce was cheating. She wasn't even playing a game." Natsu said to himself naïvely as he headed back down the glass hallway. But little did he know that someone was watching him.
"Good luck… Natsu"
To Be Continued…