"Put some pants on, pervert."
These had been the first words Lucy heard upon walking into the guild that fine day. The walk to Fairy Tail had been more than pleasant; the sun had been shining brightly, giving her a quite enjoyable sense of warmth, and in passing by the market, multiple people had recognized her and given her jubilant smiles she was more than eager to return. Her light-hearted grin had followed her the rest of the way to the building, and these words thrown out of the mouth of the short-tempered, pink-haired boy in front of her had only added to her feeling of giddiness. Another usual day in Fairy Tail, and Lucy had decided long ago that she wouldn't have wanted it any other way.
"Yo, Luce!" Said boy bounced over to her from one of the wooden tables, returning her smile with interest. "You look happy today."
"Hey, Natsu," she greeted with a contented sigh. "It's been a good day so far."
"Aye!" A certain flying cat had appeared at her chest, nearly toppling her over from the force of his hug. Happy looked up at her, an enormous beam plastered on his face. "Mira just promised me a heap load of fish after today's mission, so I agree with that!"
The blonde patted the cat on his furry blue head before waving at the raven-haired man who was lacking a pair of pants and the cherry-haired woman who was sitting beside him and giving him quite a dangerous look. Gray smiled and waved back before hastily sliding back into his trousers, and Erza nodded in greeting with her usual expression of determination regarding the request she had picked out for Team Natsu this day, holding the paper out to Lucy for her to look over.
Lucy graciously accepted the request and began to read.
HELP NEEDED
STOP THIS MAGE
This demon mage has been terrorizing the villages on the outskirts of the boundary forrest for far too long. She sucks magic from her victims and turns it into energy to replenish her own magic, which is an unknown yet powerful ability that has proved to be incredibly dangerous. MDS (Magic Deficiency Syndrome) has ensued for all victims; many dead, countless injured, possibly more to come if this she-mage is not stopped IMMEDIATELY.
WARNING: Replenishable magic; possible disability as a side-effect of any encounter; VERY powerful.
Reward: 7,000,000 Jewels
Lucy's eyes widened and her jaw dropped as she read the reward. Seven million? Seven million!? That was enough jewels to cover her rent for a hundred months, more than three entire years! She could practically feel her eyeballs turning into dollar signs in her greed.
"Lucy, you're drooling."
She looked down at the cat who had spoken, still completely in shock, then to the red-haired mage who had chosen this particular mission.
"Wha… huh?" she inquired smartly.
Erza gave her a satisfied smile. "This would cover your rent for quite some time, no? I thought it would be perfect for Team Natsu; we all know how low you've been on cash lately."
She peered at Gray and Natsu, who were both giving her enormous grins. Her jaw was still hanging loose.
"You won't have to worry about losing the apartment anymore," her rosy-haired partner piped eagerly, his obsidian eyes sparkling.
"We all use your place enough anyway; it only seems fair the entire reward goes towards it," the ice mage added casually, trying to keep his cool, though Lucy knew him well enough by now to tell he was just as excited as Natsu.
"You guys..." Lucy started, her gleeful mood rising far higher than she ever thought possible, so much to the point where she felt the familiar stinging of her eyes welling with tears. "I don't know what to say! Thank you, thank you, thank you!" She threw herself onto all three skilled mages, attempting to convey her absolute gratitude in an embrace.
"Let's get going, then!" Natsu bellowed, hugging her back. "I'm all fired up!"
They had set off immediately, as Erza hadn't wanted to waste any time in ridding Magnolia of such a criminal. Of course, the entire walk to the boundary forest, which took the entire day, consisted of Natsu and Gray bickering behind Erza and Lucy, who occasionally exchanged irritated glances. The scarlet-haired mage carried her usual excess of luggage on a big cart that trailed behind her, while the Celestial Spirit mage carried only a backpack full of clothes slung upon one shoulder and her blue feline friend hovering above her other.
Lucy inhaled deeply through her nose, savoring the smell of cedar that reminded her of home. She looked to the sky that was already quite dark and seeming to get even inkier by the minute. Stars were beginning to peek their glimmering heads through the black curtain of night, winking at the blonde far below. A small smile lit up the girl's features as she was reminded of all her celestial friends who no doubt were watching over her. It gave her a great sense of comfort as she noted how happy she was in this moment, surrounded by her greatest friends in such a beautiful scenery.
A sudden hand on her shoulder jolted her out of her thoughts, and she froze in her step, her smile falling. She looked over to see a very grim-faced Natsu whose eyes were rapidly scanning the trees before them that were shrouded in shadow.
"Natsu?" Lucy spoke softly, fearing the worst to pop from the trees. It would definitely be difficult to fight anything in such darkness, and she really didn't want Natsu destroying all the beautiful foliage around them with his pyrotechnics.
The dragon-slayer seemed to have picked up on the danger of fighting in these conditions, as he didn't spontaneously combust and charge headlong into battle as he would have in possibly any other circumstance. He glanced at Lucy, and because she was so used to reading him without any words being said, she immediately inquired, "What is it, Natsu?"
By this time both Erza and Gray had stopped walking as well, watching Natsu for any signs of peril. The team had all learned to trust his dragon instincts; they had never failed him before.
"I can smell… something." The pink-haired boy knitted his eyebrows together, his face contorted in confusion as he took shallow sniffs of the air. "I don't know what it is exactly, but it doesn't seem like something we want to meet up with."
Erza took this into consideration for a moment, then nodded, wearing a somber expression. "Alright. Let's set up camp somewhere slightly away from this route. We can continue in the morning."
The three mages and the blue feline turned down a different path and walked for another ten or so minutes before the requip mage had decided where to set up camp. She looked at Lucy for approval, which she had quickly given, as the area was surrounded by sweet smelling trees and had a clearing in the canopies in which she could see hundreds of stars. Natsu got a fire going, and they all settled down around it, though not to sleep, as energy was still thrumming in each of the young mages' veins.
Natsu had still not relaxed, and Lucy couldn't help but peer at him worriedly every now and again. It seemed as though Gray had noticed a strange change is his rival friend too, and he and Lucy exchanged a concerned glance.
Erza, however, remained oblivious as she looked to the stars in awe, an uncharacteristically child-like look lighting up her face.
"Wow," the requip mage uttered. "Your magic is based off something really incredibly beautiful, Lucy."
The blonde was taken aback by the comment, but she smiled and began admiring the navy blue sky along with her friend. "Thank you. I never tire of looking at them."
Natsu, Gray, and Happy soon joined in at the stargazing, a silent sense of wonder emanating from the team.
Lucy looked back to the earth to find Natsu staring at her with a peculiar yet jubilant expression on his face. She instantly felt better to see his trademark grin back. They all definitely needed his optimism.
Erza let out a happy sigh, promptly said "Good night," and rolled over in her sleeping bag, still entirely clothed in her usual armour. She was snoring quite loudly in a matter of minutes.
The three remaining mages shared an incredulous look and snickered as quietly as they could in fear of waking the adorable beast before also turning in, knowing they would need all the sleep they could get for the upcoming capture of the apparently dangerous criminal.
And for Lucy, waking up had never been so incredibly painful and disorienting. As soon as her eyes had opened, she let out a gasp of agony that sounded more like a whimper, feeling as though her skull were collapsing in on itself. Her limbs felt as heavy as the weights Natsu had bought and stored in her apartment, and her vision was incredibly blurred, though she could tell it was still dark out.
She heard a garbled sentence being uttered a small ways away from her, and she attempted to shift her body so she could see the person speaking, but was unable to due to the feeling of being electrocuted. She let out a small scream and felt her eyes welling with frustrated and pained tears.
A blur of pink, and she heard someone's muddled speech again, though she was too perplexed to understand it. Someone grabbed her forearm and began to pull her out of her prone position, but the pain was unbearable and she growled at whoever's hand was on her. She was dropped back down, and this time she didn't even have time to yelp as she immediately went unconscious.
"...the hell is going on?!"
"Don't touch her, Natsu! You'll only hurt her again." Lucy stirred at Erza's calm yet concerned voice.
"Hey, she's waking up!" Gray's obviously bewildered voice sent shock waves through the blonde's head.
"Give her space!"
Lucy only had the strength to halfway lift her eyelids, her body still aching and her hands shaking. All three of her teammates and Happy were crowded around her, faces the very picture of worry. She was terrified as to what in the name of Mavis was going on, but she couldn't begin yelling to find out, as she was immobilized.
"Head...hurts…" she managed to get out.
Erza clenched her jaw, brows furrowing. "I'm not certain, Lucy, but I think the mage we're after might have been by here. Natsu smelled something - or someone - funny around here a little bit after you woke up."
Natsu nodded. "Yeah, and I think she's still close-by. I'm still picking up her scent pretty strongly."
"You… think…?" Lucy croaked, unable to ask what she had intended to.
Gray piped up, understanding what she had been about to inquire about. His voice was somber. "It looks like she drained your magic. You're showing all the symptoms of Magic Deficiency Syndrome."
Fear shot through Lucy; she didn't really know what MDS was besides the basics, but she knew it was fairly dangerous. She had seen Master Makarov nearly killed because of the strange disorder, but she never thought she would ever have to deal with such a horror.
"Only… me?" It was Natsu's turn to clench his jaw as he nodded, obviously as oblivious as she was when it came to the question of why only Lucy had been drained.
"I can't yet drain too many people at a time."
Everyone but Lucy jerked to face the small, almost shy-sounding voice that came from the trees behind them, though when she eventually (and very slowly) turned her head to see, she was utterly bewildered at the person who had spoken.
Even in such darkness, Lucy could make out a woman - or rather, a girl - perched atop a branch belonging to one of the enormous trees surrounding them. She was a cute thing that reminded Lucy a bit of Wendy, though she looked slightly older. Her dark hair fell in wild curls around her waist, bits of twigs and leaves poking out of it as though she hadn't left the forest in quite some time, and her eyes were dark yet bright with wonder. Lucy noted the girl's peculiar teeth that reminder her of Natsu's, her canines sharp and protruding from her lips.
The girl leapt to the ground, and the movement alone was enough to have Erza requip twin swords, Natsu ignite his clenched fists in flame, and Gray take a defensive stance over Lucy's still horizontal body, hands ready for Ice Make. Happy hovered by Natsu, a determined look on his feline face.
If the girl was startled at all by such actions, she didn't show it, but she didn't move closer to the team either. She simply frowned, seemingly confused.
"No fair; I don't have all of your magic yet, only the key-holder's. I want to fight her instead."
"Like hell," Natsu snarled.
"Are you the mage who's been draining their victims' magic?" Erza's face was incredibly serious and just as angry as she faced the mysterious girl. Lucy actually felt bad for her assailant for having to face such a wrath.
The girl only nodded, unfazed by the looks she was getting from the mages before her. "My name's Alea." She looked straight at Lucy, which made the latter girl's skin crawl. "Your magic was very tasty."
At this, all of Team Natsu froze, bewildered by what Alea had just said.
"Did she just say…?" Gray started.
Lucy had never been much of a battle-oriented person, but even she had to admit she was possibly smarter than Erza, Gray, Natsu, and Happy put together, which made her quite useful in situations where brains were needed more than brawn. Basically, in situations such as these. As much as it made her brain hurt, Lucy thought hard and came to a dangerous conclusion.
"Stand back, guys!" Lucy yelped, her throat on fire from just the small action of speaking. "No one use any magic at all."
Her team all looks to her in confusion, though they still stayed focused on the dark-haired girl before them.
"What is it, Luce?" Natsu asked grimly.
"She's like you," Lucy tried explaining, "only instead of fire, she eats magic."
Natsu turned his full attention to his blonde partner then, a confused and stony look blazing in his eyes.
"Lucy," Erza fists were clenched around her weapons tightly, knowing her teammate to be onto something but not looking forward to the inevitably upcoming bad news. "What are you talking about?"
Lucy could feel herself trembling, staring warily at the girl whose face remained eerily stoic. Before the celestial mage could wheeze out another sentence, however, Alea visibly ran her tongue across her honed teeth, gave a small, shy smile, and spoke.
"My name is Alea Falcone, and I'm the all-elemental mage slayer."