Chapter 1: A Risky Encounter
All Lucy could think about at the moment was, Damn, we should have taken the whole team with us, I don't know if Natsu and I can handle this alone!
Perhaps she was right. What was supposed to be a simple job turned dangerous very quickly. She and Natsu had left yesterday, headed toward a town on the border of a large forest, called Greendale. The job seemed easy enough, "Fairy Tail Wizards Requested to Find a Missing Wizard – Reward: 40,000 Jewell." All they had to do was find the Wizard, bring him into town hall, and collect the reward money.
Or so they thought.
It was a trap from the very beginning. The "Missing Wizard," who calls himself Maverick, put out the request himself, after turning every person in Greendale to stone. He had a grudge on Fairy Tail, and any other sanctioned guild for that matter. He was a member of a dark guild called Wicked Vandal, which was previously taken down and disbanded, as a result of an altercation with Fairy Tail members. Ever since then he had been plotting his revenge, getting stronger and waiting for the right moment to begin his serial guild destruction.
"Lucy, watch out!" Natsu yelled from across the clearing. Lucy dove to the right, just barely missing the arrow as it whirred past her head. "Hang in there Luce! I've almost got this guy now!" he raised his blazoned fists and jumped toward the dark Wizard.
"Right!" She responded, reaching down to her belt for her keys. After fingering through them, she found the right one and shouted, "Open, gate of the Archer, Sagittarius!"
A golden light flashed in the air before Sagittarius appeared, his bow already drawn and ready to fire.
"At your service, Lady Lucy!" He shouted.
"Take that guy out, Sagittarius!" Lucy pointed at Maverick, who was smiling wickedly.
"Right away!" he let an arrow fly, but Maverick was too quick. The evil wizard laughed hysterically.
"Is that the best you can do? Summon some toy to shoot tiny pins at me? At least call out a puppet who can aim properly!" Maverick raised his bow, a magical tool that seemed to be an intangible waft of glowing smoke and light, and loosed an arrow toward Sagittarius.
"Sagittarius, dodge it! Some of his arrows are poisoned!" Lucy cried. But Sagittarius was too slow to dodge the Wizard's arrow; as it passed through him, his gate was closed so quickly he only had time to shoot an apologetic look at Lucy before disappearing into the celestial world.
Arrows continued to fly in Lucy's direction until out of the blue, Natsu appeared with his flames flailing about in anger. Maverick had been so focused on attacking Lucy, he forgot all about the Dragon Slayer, who inhaled a gust of air and released a massive Fire Dragon's Roar right in his direction.
Maverick was thrown off guard and whirled around to dodge the attack – too slow. His right arm took the brunt of Natsu's attack, and he fell to his knees in pain. When he saw the pink-haired monster stomping toward him, his body completely on fire, he stood up and ran. In panic, he loosed two arrows at once, one at Natsu, and one at Lucy.
Natsu dodged easy enough, and Lucy was picked up by Happy just in time. He set her down gently and she thanked him. However, she was exhausted. She had already called on three other spirits that day, all in less than an hour worth of fighting. She could summon one more, but it would almost completely drain her of magic energy and leave her weak and defenseless.
"You weak little girl, why don't you just call one of your puppets to take the hit for you so you can save your energy? What a waste of talent you are." Maverick sneered at her with a twisted smile.
"First of all, they are not puppets; they are Celestial Spirits! And second of all, I would never, ever call on one of my friends for such a reason. They are my friends, not my shields!" at these words, she could feel a warmth in her heart as her spirits sent her their feelings as well. They were her friends, her allies. They loved her as much as she loved them.
"How pointless and childish." He yawned. "In that case, why don't I just shoot you where you stand and call it a day?" He raised his bow once more with a poisoned arrow, ready to fly, when he was stopped by a hand at his throat. Natsu had a hold of Maverick's coat, pulling him toward a furious pair of amber eyes.
"You won't lay a single blow on Lucy." Natsu growled. "You'll be pummeled before you can even let that arrow fly." His face was twisted in fury, his chest rising and falling quickly, flames rising in his belly and out of his fingertips. "If you want her, you'll have to go through me!"
"Aye, Sir!" agreed Happy.
"Ahh I see how it is," Maverick nearly whispered, then in a louder voice he said, "terribly sorry, I hate to break it to you but I don't need my arms to use my bow. That's all just for theatrics." He snapped his fingers, and the wispy figure of the bow appeared again at his side, aimed right for Lucy.
"If you were to 'pummel' me, it would take less than a second for me to drive this arrow into your fair lady's heart. If you don't, I'll use it to take you out. Your choice." He said with a sick grin and a chuckle.
Natsu didn't even need to think. He knew exactly what he was going to do. There was no way he was letting this creep go, not after everything he put them through and how much he hurt Lucy already. What was the pain of some little stick of an arrow anyway? At that, he raised his flaming fist and drove it right into the evil wizard's face.
Right on cue, the arrow went flying toward Lucy, who pulled out her whip as if she attempted to knock it away. Natsu, however, had other plans. He raced the arrow to Lucy, faster than he had ever ran, pushed her out of the way and took the hit. He moved so quickly it was hard to tell if he was running, jumping, or flying. In a split second, Natsu was on the ground with the arrow embedded in his shoulder.
When Lucy finally realized what happened, she looked to Maverick, who was unconscious and probably on the verge of bleeding out, and then to Natsu lying on the ground in front of her. He was sweating and breathing heavily, his right arm reaching out to hold his left arm to his side, an arrow protruding from his left shoulder.
"Natsu, you idiot! Why would you do something so reckless?!" She cried, running over to him and kneeling beside him. He was not shaken with pain, although his face was scrunched up at the twinge from the arrow.
"It's just an arrow, Luce," he grinned, "Wendy can heal me right up when we get home!"
"But the arrow was laced with poison! What if we don't make it home in time?" At this, Natsu's eyes widened with shock as Lucy's face began streaming with tears. Now that she mentioned it, he began to feel dizzy and her blonde hair was looking more fuzzy than usual.
"No way, Lucy, I'll be fine." He breathed, starting to feel the effects more heavily.
"You're so stupid, Natsu. How could you do this to me? I can't lose you, I can't watch you die!" she cried more heavily, leaning over his chest as her body shook with tremoring sobs. How could she ever get over the guilt of letting him die because he took a hit for her? He looked at her with a softened gaze.
"You can't lose me, Luce. We're partners, and I'll never leave you. We'll always be together – you, me and Happy." He looked dazed and his words were blurring together. In response, Lucy looked directly into his eyes and spoke.
"I'm not letting you go out like this. Happy!" she called out to the Exceed, who was too shaken to feel the gravity of the situation.
"Aye!"
"Fly Natsu to the guild hall. It'll take time but it's his only hope of surviving. I have no idea what's in that poison or how long it takes to take effect, but if he has any chance of getting to Wendy before that happens, we have to take it!" she stood up, brushing off her skirt and looked at Happy with determination; she tried to ignore the feeling of doom setting in around her – she had to be positive for Natsu, he just had to make it through this!
"You got it!" Happy cried as he lifted his wings and carried Natsu into the air, trying not to shed a tear for his friend. Natsu's speech was beginning to fail; he couldn't respond to the situation. Only look upon Lucy's shrinking figure as she gathered up Maverick, handcuffed him, and began dragging him in the direction of the town. He wondered if all the people turned to stone had woken up. Or if Lucy would be okay with that creep by herself. All he knew for sure, was that he was so glad to not be taking the train back to Magnolia.
With that thought, he drifted into sleep.
"Hang on, Natsu. Please don't leave me. I need you." Lucy whispered, watching his retreating figure fly away toward home. "Please make it in time." She wiped a tear from her cheek before grabbing Maverick under the shoulders and dragging him out of the clearing.