Lucy smirked in pain while trying to grip her keys. Like they were going to come to help her. Even the spirits thought she was a traitor.
'I'm never a traitor.' She determinedly thought and faced the attack that was going straight to her.
The white light was 6 seconds away from hitting her so she called out Loke.
After her calling, Loke appeared in the world annoyed and miliseconds later, his frown turned into a thin line of shock when his reflexes blocked the attack from hitting him. He completely obliterated the attack and dropped his fist down. He turned his head slightly to glare at Lucy.
''For making me defend a disgusting person like you. How lowly.'' He sneered before closing his own gate forcefully.
His forceful self-closing drained the tiny bits of energy left inside her fragile body, already battered and covered with her own blood. She cursed at her comrade for pulling such thing, even though the misunderstanding was intentional on her part. She breathed out and her eyes were beginning to shut. The last thing she cursed at was her fate that her mom prepared for her before she completely blacked out and entered the realm of darkness by herself. Her body lied on the ground alone, battered and bloody. Nobody would help her, because nobody was there. Nobody was there for her. Before she left Fairy Tail, well, more like kicked out from the guild, she grew accustomed to people ignoring her and pushing her away.
'Stay strong for a little longer, Lucy.' A voice filled her loneliness.
A tear silent tear made it's way out from her shut eyes and once again, her lying broken body on the ground looked so lonely.
Natsu smirked at Gray before departing ways. Boy, both of them would never stop fighting each other. It already was a daily thing, even disregarding what type of situation they were involved in. There was a reason why Erza always looked so pissed off hanging around them both for even 5 minutes. Even 30 seconds of their idiocy could drive her beyond mad. Frankly, Natsu felt that it was nice. Even after Lucy's 'betrayal', them still bantering for the most pointless things was to prove Lucy they weren't the least affected by her doings. That everyone spending their days regularly meant that what she did was nothing. She meant nothing. Even after she left, they were doing better than okay.
'We never needed you.'
With the last thought, Natsu felt Happy going sound asleep on his back. He smiled gently, very uncharacteristic for a hot head like him. He was more than happy that people still stick to each other through thick and thin, always having each others backs.
What Natsu was relishing, was something that Lucy desperately yearning for.
'If I die, I'll give all my endless gratefulness to you, Fairy Tail. The adventures were memorable treasures, thank you for giving something so precious to me. And… If I were to really die, I'll give you my truth, for you never deserved such white and idle lies to begin with.' Was the last thought Lucy was thinking before she bid farewell to her glorious Magnolia. Glorious it was for having Fairy Tail standing on their grounds.
"Let's pull her up, she has a strong will to live. I…could feel it."
"Ya think ya d'only one? A babe like her is still so fiery I tell ya, even when she looks likes a beaten bag, aye."
"Stop that stupid accent, Berin."
"Ya kinda like it, I could tell."
"Please. Just, stop it."
Lucy opened her eyes to meet the skies full of shining stars. She sighed, wondering how long was she out for. The last scene she saw was the orange sky slowly turning into red. She reckoned she was probably out for 4 to 5 hours. An expression of grimace graces her gentle features, 5 hours was a lot of time that she wasted. A deep sigh escaped her mouth as she continued to stare at the stars. This was still a waste of time but her body ached. It hurt so bad it's practically torture for her to even lift a limb. Maybe all those unrested duels were taking a toll on her body, she had already expected a sudden break. She became slower and slower and for the first time, she depended on one of her spirits to help her on a traitor's mission. It was a traitor's mission because she was dubbed as a traitor and was kicked out to only continue her mission.
She didn't have time to cry for losing the trust of the only people she'd sacrifice for, she didn't even have time to take a break from fighting 4 monsters in a row. Selfish she had been for all those idle, naive time. Now, she needs to make up for it by being relentlessly harsh on herself. But then, she can see being so cruel on one self is getting out of hand. Maybe she needs the rest and become slightly innocent by staring at the stars for just tonight. Tomorrow morning, she'd continue her journey and try to limit her harsh and reckless decisions while fighting.
Her train of thought came into an abrupt halt when she heard rustling beside of her. She had been wondering who had helped her parth up her wounds, unless Wendy followed her around and decided to punish her by healing her without using her powers. She smirked in pain at the ridiculous thought, because it was simply ridiculous. Wendy would never follow her, she would never follow a traitor of the guild.
"Are you already awake, blondie?" A masculine voice asked.
"Yes and maybe I should let you know, I was never fond being called blondie." She stated.
So maybe that wasn't Wendy. Maybe it was Mirajane disguising as a hitch hiker that was conveniently passing by and conveniently had the urge to help a battered girl.
Lucy smirked again, she could only dream of such ridiculous thing. She was a traitor, traitor's are either to be slaughtered or abandoned to die. Lucy would've preferred none. She was going to live and fulfill the mission for her mother. That was her will to live. That would be already enough of a reason to keep on living.
"Then what's your name?" The black haired man smiled cunningly.
"Just call me Lucy. I suppose I should also know yours?" She tilted her head with a small distant smile.
"Berinhardt. I say Lucy, I wonder what you fought so hard to get those nasty wounds on you." He closed his right eye and showed her his neck, revealing a tattoo.
Lucy held her blush back and lowered her shirt to show him her collarbone. There was the tattoo with the same design as his.
"Blood?" He asked.
"Blood legacy. You?"
"Magick legacy. I always thought blood traitors had the upperhand. We Magick traitors had to face some serious pathetic beggings just for us to stay in their guild. It got beyond pathetic, I had to threaten them severely so they could let me go." He looked at the distance as he remembered the horrible things he had done to start his journey as a 'traitor'.
"Just a simple push off the cliff and you're done. I thought it would've take much more than that but I already planned ahead to make them hate me. Worked perfectly. Too perfect. Just wanna tell you that I already prepared something at the bottom of the fall, I'm not gonna be that heartless just for continueing my mother's legacy." She stared at the stars.
Her heart ached as she saw the Scorpio constellation but ignored it. There's just so many other things than crying for a spirit.
"Being heartless could be the greatest asset to have during the 'traitor's' mission. So who was it? The monsters and the challenges of course." He asked attentively.
"The guild I was in before I betrayed them. They were the people that I cared for." She answered while sitting up.
Berinhardt nodded and told her his were his family before they died. Except his sister. Lucy could only listen to him attentively as he poured his hearts out about what he had faced during the mission. Lucy almost spilled her tears but she held it back. Although Berinhardt sounded sad telling her, he didn't cry at all. His family was not a wound anymore but a scar. Scars are never pretty to begin with so that's why people who have scars would rather hide it, but because they both were doing the mission, they understood each other's pain going through the challenges.
It was Lucy's turn on telling the story of her guild and she stopped when people approached her. On a red head female's shoulder was the tattoo and the black haired one had it on the dorsal side of her roght hand.
"Sorry for interrupting. We heard an unfamilar voice talking to Berinhardt and reckoned you already woke up. My name's Agatha." The black haired one stretched out her arm.
Lucy shook it and returned Agatha's smile with a slightly bigger smile than the smile she wore for Berinhardt. Then the fiery red head came into her view with a charismatic smile.
"Galiana. You can call me Ana. Am a magick tyrant. Agatha, Atha. Atha's Berin younger sister. I'm sure along the way he had told you about her. We actually have another 2 guys here with us. Both are blood legacies, brothers. They're sleeping in their tents now so you'd meet them tomorrow." Galiana smiled.
Lucy nodded with the simplest of smile and Ana urged her to continue her story. It has been 4 months she had started the mission and for Ana, everyone needs to get something out.
"Everyone here got a nickname. What about giving one for you? I'm already liking the sound of Luce." Berin smiled and rested his face on his palm.
Lucy's mask finally cracked and realized they are intending to group with her. She let out a painful smile and shook her head.
"Just Lucy is already more than enough." She smiled gently.
Berin smiled at her and also Ana and Atha. It was quite ridiculous for a friendship being conjured so quickly like this. But now that everything seems like this was already a steel destiny, she could go with the flow. Destiny was giving her something to compensate for the cruel things they had done to her. For once since 4 months, she was accepting what fate was giving her.
Fate was giving her a night for her to let all of her fustration out and after tonight, she'll have friends that will go through this journey together.
"It first appeared 7 months ago. This mark was nothing but a mark to me. I've heard the stories, thought that it won't work for some reason. Then after 1 month, the tendecies appeared. I fantasized about killing my guildmates, m-my friends… It drove me to the edge so I did what I had to do. I betrayed them." She grimly told them as she stared at the campfire.
"We constantly had visions that we were the ones that killed our parents. Our guild didn't really mean much to me, so betraying them was nothing. This mark just wants tyranny, anything about betrayal would satisfy it." He said, staring coldly at nothing in particular.
"The guild didn't see us as friends, but rather the dough earners. Betraying them wasn't an obligation but something we wanted to do." Atha told the story in a monotoned voice.
"My visions were about killing my adopted family. This mark is disgusting, made me envision about killing a 2 year old child. Fucking disgusted me." Ana smirked bitterly and threw some wood into the fire.
Lucy lied on her back again and stared at the stars again. They all decided to call it a night after talking about a few more things. She stared at the tent for a while and saw a leg coming out of the tent. She chuckled and thought that maybe the guys sleeping there were like Natsu. Reckless people with a hint of chivalry. She kept the small yet genuine smile on her face and slept with it. The last silent tears of the day spilled out. That will be the first and last time tears were spilled for her friends that she wanted to protect.
Natsu looked out at his window. He smiled and moonlight hit his face when he opened the curtains. The night sky was clear of clouds and the moon and stars were in sight. He was grateful for his friends, his life and everything that was going right for him. Lucy, she wasn't important to them anymore.