Hello! This is my first fanfiction, so... yeah. I've also got another one called AJFlower, but that's on my IPad. My IPad's broken now, so... I'm not going to be posting there anymore. This is my new account. I hope you like this.

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Chapter 1 - The Mission

"I hope we're all ready for this, everyone. THis is a very important mission that Master sent us on. DO NOT mess this up, do you hear me, Natsu and Gray?" Erza threathened the arguing boys. I giggled when all of a sudden, the boys stopped theire pointless argument and hugged each other. "W-what? Of course, E-erza. Why would we mess up, heh?" Gray stuttered nervously.

"Aye!" I skipped ahead, sighing happily. "Come on, guys! We're gonna miss the train if we don't hurry up!" With my words, Natsu paled and stumbled slightly. "Ugh, can't we just walk this one?" He grumbled. Erza glared at him, and hit him over the head. "No, Natsu. We are taking the train; we cannot miss this one. Master is counting on us." ERza stalked ahead, leaving me, Happy and Gray to deal with a sick Natsu. "Seriously, flame-brain? Just getting sick thinking of a train? Tch. Weakling." Natsu looked up and glared att him, all traces of sickness gone. "Who you calling weakling, weakling?" He growled.

"Who do you think I'm calling weakling? You're the only one that's weak here!"

"You wanna go, stripper?"

"Bring it on, bastard!"

"Ash-for-brains!"

"Cut it out, you two!" Erza came back, hitting the boys on their head. "Stop messing around, or I will castrate you myself." Erza threatened, pointing her sword at the boy's throat. "Calm down, Erza. Let's just go to the train station, OK?" I gently tapped her shoulder. She turned around and smiled at me. "Of course, Lucy. Don't worry, we shall get going now. Come along, boy's." They scrambled alongside us, bickering quietly, so Erza wouldn't hear. "Hey Lushy, what do you think this top-secret mission is about?" A blue little neko-cat asked me, floating beside my head. I shrugged, and smiled cheerfully at him. "i don't know, Happy. Why don't you go ask Erza yourself?" He shook his head, shuddering. "Erza is too scary. I figured I'd ask you because you're nicer-"

"Aw!"

"-and you're weaker, so you wouldn't hit as hard!" My smile instantly turned into a scowl, and I turned around angrily. "I'm not weak, you stupid little neko!"

"Na na na na na, you can't hurt m- umph!"

"LUCY KICK!" Happy's screams were heard a mile away. Natsu and Gray stopped their arguing, and stared at the cheerful girl. "Lucy's also scary when she's angry." Gray muttered under his breath. "I know right. Demon Lucy... argh." They both shuddered, and returned to their arguement.

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I sat on the train with Natsu and Erza sitting opposite me, while Gray sat next to me, Happy curled onto my lap. Natsu's face looked green, and he was uncontrollably retching. After the fifth time, Erza finally cracked. She hit him over the head hard with the back of her armour, and instantly Natsu was knocked out. "So, Erza. Would you mind explaining this mission to us? We don't know any details, since you've kept quiet about this ever since we've left." Gray asked, unconsiously taking his shirt off. I leaned over closer, all ears. Erza sighed and massaged her temples. "Alright. I guess you deserve to know." She got out her strawberry cake, and started to eat. "Matser wanted us to complete a very difficult mission. Have you ever heard of the Gem of Fiore?" I nodded slowly, while Gray shook his head. I was glad that Natsu and Heppy were asleep; they would've just asked stupid questions. "Isn't that the Gem that has loads of magical power stored inside of it?" I asked. Erza nodded her head, and continued. "Yes, but that is only half of it. The Gem stored lots of magical power, yes, but there is also another bit of the story.

"Long ago, this place was overriden by evil wizards of darkness. They would terrorize the townsfolk, and kill anyone who stood in their way. They were a guild called 'Blue Skull'. Mavis, the First Master, created this guild to destroy the darkness and replace it with light. To do that, she had to cast an enormous spell, which took a toll on her physical health. That is why, to the day she died, she still looked like a thirteen-year-old girl.

"The spell was called Fairy Law. Apparantly, someone had taught her this spell before she went to war with Blue Skull. Once she had casted it, it made a huge globe all around Magnolia, sucking in the darkness, sealing it within. She and her friends captured the glowing globe of darkness, and crafted a gem to seal it away. That gem was sent to the King of Fiore, and has been kept safe. But now, it seems like someone has captured the gem, and is trying to make this place dark again. Master sent us to stop that criminal, in favour of Master Mavis and her friends." Me and Gray listened carefully to the sad story. Gray was angry. "Why the hell would someone try to do that?" He cried out, taking his pants off. I sighed. "Gray, clothes."

"I don't care about that right now!" He yelled, grabbing his clothes anyways. I turned to Erza. "Hey, Erza. So the mission is to catch the thief and stop this darkness?" I asked her. She lifted her head, her dark brown eyes serious. "Yes. But I am afraid that this mission will be quite difficult. You see, to be able to get close to the gem, you would have to have much magic power. If the wronf person got close it..." She trailed off, looking down again. I thought hard, all of us in silence. 'What can we do to stop the criminal? If Erza is doubting herself, then this must be a real threat.' "We should just get some rest, guys. We're in for a real battle tomorrow." we all drifted off into an uneasy sleep.

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When we arrived at our station, we hurried to the hotel we were staying in, Erza dragging Natsu. He woke up with a jolt, and yelled at Erza. "What do you think you're doing? Let go of me!" We ignored him and kept running. "I'll go ahead guys - I'll book the rooms, and then we can take a rest before planning." Erza and Gray nodded towards me, and slowed down so Natsu could stand up. I sprinted to the hotel, trying to get there as fast as I could. 'We can't be wasting our time on meaningless things. I've got to go quicker - who knows what the thief could be doing now!' I thought, pushing myself to go faster. I ended up at the hotel in record speed, and came flying to the recepionist. "Two rooms, please" I panted, leaning on the counter. She threw a disgusted look my way, and handed me two small keys. "Enjoy your stay here!" She called out while I went up the stairs. 'Whatever. I need to start reading about this straight away!'

A few minutes after I had settled into mine and Erza's room, there was a knock on my door. 'Must be Erza.' "Coming, Erza! Just give me a seond!" I yelled, fishing for the key. When I had finally found it, I unlocked the door to find a disgruntled Erza waiting for me. "I'm sorry, Erza! I was just looking for the key!" She grimaced at me. "It's quite alright, Lucy. Give me the keys to the boy's room; I will have to hand it to them." I gave her the second key ad she turned around to give it to the boys, who were just opposite us. "There you go, Gray. I am trusting you with the key - do not lose it, you hear me?" He rolled his eyes and shoved it into his pockets. "Yeah yeah, Erza. Whatever, I'll take good care of it." I poked my head out from the door. "You know Gray, you'll probably lose the key from stripping and not being able to find your clothes!" Natsu and Erza started laughing, and Gray turned red. "H-hey! I won't lose it!"

"Uh, Gray?"

"WHAT?"

"Where are your pants?"

"Holy shit where are they?" We all burst out luaghing again. "Right, everybody. Now that we've had our fun, we need to start planning." Erza's face turned serious again. I noddded along with her. "I'll call out Crux to see if he has any knowledge of it!" 'Open, gate of the Southern Cross, Crumudgeon!' Crux appeared ina flash of golden light, snoozing. "WAKE UP GRANDPA CRUX!" I yelled. The small bubble that was oozing from his nose popped, waking him up. "Eh? Oh hello dear Lucy. What is it that you need?" He asked, his old, croaky voice tired after helping me from the last mission. "Sorry about interuppting your nap, but this is important. Can you look up the history of the Gem of Fiore? Thanks."

"Of course, Lucy." And with that, he went to sleep-searching. "Uh, Lucy? I thought that the spirit was supposed to be helping us look for information, not dozing off?" Gray said, frowning at Crux's sleeping form. I chuckled lightly. "It's just how Crux searched for stuff - don't worry, he'll come back with valuable information, I guaruntee it." So after a few minutes of waiting, Gray started to get a little impatient. "Hey, Luce. When is he-"

"ARGH!" Everyone jumped at Crux's cry. Erza stopped midway of eating cake, Natsu accidently pulled Happy's tail, and Gray jumped about two feet. I got to my feet, and eagerly looked at Crux. "What did you find, Grandpa?" He scratched his chin, and looked up thoughtfully. "Well, you see, dear Lucy," he started, "The gem is under special watch. I cannot give full details, but I can tell you the main theme that is going on here." I nodded happily. "Go on, Crux. What information do you have?"

"Well you see, the gem, as you know, stores dark magic inside of it." We all leaned forward. "But, what we did not know, was that the magic held inside was dark energy." Gray frowned. "What's the difference between dark energy and dark magic? Aren't they the same thing?"

"No. Dark magic consists of all darkness - dark matter, dark soul, dark lost magic, etc. And like we mentioned before, dark energy. Dark energy is the worst dark magic you could obtain - it would turn everything that was full of life, into a complete despairing creature of hate and anger to the world. It would turn the enrgy into horrible hate and evil, everything would turn to the complete opposite.

"Back to the information. As it stores dark energy inside of it, it will be very hard to... let's say, 'resurrect' it. It would need a great deal of sacrifiction to bring it out of the gem - the gem, as we know, is extremely powerful, holding all that darkness." We all sighed happily. "So, it's gonna be hard for them to get, huh? Well, then, it should be an easy mission. All we need to do is beat them up and then everything will be over!" Natsu yelled, punching the air. "I know! We should have this done in a jiffy!" But, to all our surprise, Erza and Crux shook their heads. "Do you not remember what I told you on the train? The man or woman who has taken the gem holds extreme magic power. It will be very difficult to beat them, even with our combined forces." Me and Gray groaned loudly, drooping in depression. 'I can't believe that I forgot about that! It was vital, as well! Oh, I'm such an idiot...' . "So, Erza? If this person is stroong, then it'll be a good challenge! I'm sure they're not that strong, come on, we're Fairy Tail, we can do any-" Erza slapped Natsu across the face, tears streaming down her face. Everyone was shocked - they had never seen the great Queen of the Faires cry before! "Shut up, Natsu! Stop treating this like a joke! This is serious, everyone's lives are in danger! We can't just storm in and beat everyone! One wrong move, and we'll all be dead! Don't you see?" Erza broke down to the floor, sobbing. We all just stared at her, minus Crux. "I'm scared, Natsu. Scared for all my family's lives that could be put in danger. Scared of what will happen to all of you... becasue this time, I'm not sure I can protect you." I rushed over to her side, and hugged her tightly. She clung onto me, her cries muffled as she dug into my shoulder. "Shh, shh, Erza. Don't worry, we'll be able to fight them. We're Fairy Tail, after all?" I laughed lightly, and rubbed soothing circles on her back. I felt her shuddering slow down a little, and heard her breathing returning to normal. "Thank you, Lucy. I'm sure we'll be able to push through this." I smiled warmly at her. "I'm sure you can do this, Erza. Because you've got your family behind you, supporting you through everything. We've got your back!"

"Yeah! I agree with Lucy; you can count on us, Erza! We're always here for you!" Gray said, leaping in and hugging us. We all luaghed, before we heard a small cough behind us. It is Crux. "So back to my 'story'. As I was saying, there is one easy way they could resurrect the darkness." Silence fell upon us all. "W-what's that, Crux? Tell us, please!" I begged, after a moment of uncomfortable silence. He took in a deep breath, and looked straight at me. "To resurrect the darkness, they will need a Stellar mage."

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OK, OK. So how did you like my first chapter? Was it alright? I hope you enjoyed it, and I would really love some feedback! Obviously, the part when Erza was explaining the gem's past was from Mavis' story - but of course I tweeked it so it would fit my story.

Love you all, Loliquet~