A/N: There's a very important note at the end of this for you guys! I hope you all enjoy what's to come, and for those of you who also follow MadSoullessQueen, then I'm sure you know where this is going. Even though the event doesn't start until the end of the month (details are at the end), I decided to give you a little something extra with the introduction chapter.

Chapter 1
Limbo-Adjacent

Lucy wasn't sure she really enjoyed the turning in her stomach while barreling through this warm darkness. She didn't enjoy the lack of light in general, but the fact that it wasn't cold was giving her the heebie-jeebies, something fierce. Darkness should be cold, not making her feel as though she'd wrapped herself up in a snuggly, fuzzy blanket.

Also, she couldn't tell if she was falling downward, or moving forward. She could have been soaring up toward the heavens for all she knew. The pressure surrounding her was equal no matter how she shifted her sluggish arms. At least the hole that had been blown through her chest didn't hurt anymore. And she couldn't feel any blood clinging to her tattered clothes. She also couldn't feel her keys in her hand or warming the pouch on her hip, though, so that was definitely cause for concern.

How was she supposed to get back to her friends, her team, if she didn't have her spirits with her? Natsu was probably worried already, screaming his face off about being fired up because…

Her brows furrowed when the foggy memory returned. Natsu hadn't been near her when it happened. It was probably why it had happened to begin with. He hadn't been close enough to protect her, and it had been her bright idea for them to split up and check different corridors in that stupid castle anyway.

But when he did find her, and she knew that he would eventually, Lucy was sure that things wouldn't end well. Natsu would be devastated at the sight of her battered, bloody body lying crumpled on the stained stone floor in that god-awful smelling room. She was positive it had been used as a toilet by some beast, the stench was that horrendous.

But she was digressing. She couldn't help it. Her mind was everywhere and nowhere all at once in this timeless, empty void of a space. Except it wasn't empty. She knew that it wasn't, because there was most definitely something touching her, sliding along her arms and legs and across her cheeks. Through her hair.

At least it felt nice.

Slowly, her eyes opened. When had they closed? Well, she could only assume that she'd closed them simply because there hadn't really been anything to look at. Or maybe her eyes hadn't really been closed at all, and she just couldn't comprehend the possibility that whatever she was seeing right then had suddenly manifested out of nowhere and nothing - or was it everywhere and from everything? Maybe her vision had gone from being filled with blackness to this grey wash that bled into a soft sepia, and finally muted colors so quickly that it seemed to happen out of nowhere, but so gradually that she wasn't shocked by the change.

Was that possible at all?

"Man, they did a number on you."

Lucy's head turned toward the soft, rasping voice behind her. It was so soft that she couldn't tell if it was a man or a woman speaking, and when she found a vaguely humanoid lump of drab grey fabric just beside her, their identity still wasn't clear.

"You should've been pulled out of Limbo weeks ago."

Weeks? She'd only just gotten a hole in her chest. She knew that.

"Yeah, this isn't Limbo. I guess you could call it Limbo-adjacent, but from my understanding there's not really a heaven or hell until you've been reincarnated at least 17 times. Or something like that."

This thing didn't sound all that sure about it. That definitely made her a little uneasy.

"I'll have to check the handbook again."

It needed a handbook?! Oh, this wasn't good.

"Still can't talk?" the clothes asked. "I'll make it simple and give you yes or no for now. Talk when you can, because you've got places to be."

Lucy nodded. At least she could do that.

The clothes floated a few paces away from her, hovering nearly a foot off the ground. Lucy looked down at the empty space beneath this strange being, then at the ground itself. What in the world was this made of? Some sort of shifting bronze material bled into shimmering golds and pinks. Her toes wriggled to test what it felt like. How she knew that her boots were gone escaped her, but it didn't feel like a liquid. It sure looked like liquid though. How strange.

"Here's what this boils down to," the figure said, and she had to struggle to force her attention away from the ground and back up to what she assumed was where its face was. There was a shape that seemed like shoulders there, and another that she could only assume was some semblance of a head, so that was where she settled her gaze. "You're dead."

She knew that much already. It wasn't that hard to figure out.

"You'll have three options to choose from for your next life." The figure gestured behind it toward a wall made from very solid stone. "You'll go through the door, live in that body for a day, then return here."

Her brows furrowed. How would she get back here? Where was here?

"Once you go through the door, you won't remember your past life, or being here. You'll have all the memories of that life, in that world," it continued. "But when you're here, you'll remember everything. The life you came from, and what you experienced there."

Lucy nodded. She wasn't sure if she followed, entirely, but she was trying.

"Then you'll go through the second door," the figured sighed. It sounded bored. How many times had it said this same little speech? Was this its only job? "Same deal. You won't remember the life you came from, being here, or even the life in the first door. You'll spend a day in that world. When you come back here, you'll remember everything. The life you just came from, being here, the life in the first door, being here again, then the life in the second door."

Sweet Mavis, this thing rambled.

"Then you'll go through the third door. You won't remember the life you came from, being here, the life in the first door, being here again, the life in the second door, or being here a third time. You'll spend a day in that world. When you come back here, you'll remember everything. The life you just came from, being here, the life in the first door, being here again, the life in the second door, being here a third time, the life in the third door, and being here again."

Lucy nodded again. Slower this time. Did it think she was stupid?

"Once you come back from the third door, you'll have one day to choose which life you want to be reincarnated into. You'll pick back up in that life once I send you through the door a second time. So, whatever happens there when you leave, that's where you start."

Did that mean that her being reincarnated wasn't going to be something like her being born again, and having to live life as a child?

"Once you start that new life, you'll lose all memories of everything that came before it. You'll only have memories of that life: the ones that have been created for it, and those from the time you were in that world after going through the door the first time," the figure continued.

Did that mean that she would have manufactured memories? What about the people she'd interacted with in that new life before actually becoming the consciousness behind the body? Were their memories also manufactured? Or was she taking someone else's body and putting her soul into it, and just kicking out some other soul?

Oh god, what if one of these doors had her stuck in quicksand, on the verge of dying? Would she have to die again?!

Or what if she was stuck in prison?! She definitely didn't want a life that was spent that way!

"You look freaked out. Did I forget to mention that what's behind each of these doors is a result of the way you lived your previous life? That's how this works, you know. If you were a murderer, well… Not many good options. I once had a guy come in here, and he got to choose from a dung beetle, a crack baby, and a turkey."

Holy shit, this thing was insane. What kind of options were those?!

"He chose the turkey, got slaughtered the following Thanksgiving."

It almost sounded like this thing was trying not to laugh about it. Honestly, she probably would have chosen being the baby, crack-addiction and all. At least she could try and overcome her circumstances, assuming she survived until adolescence. But to choose a turkey? What was that guy's malfunction that he'd chosen to be a bird? And not just any bird, a stupid bird. A bird who was known for drowning itself in rainwater just because it couldn't be bothered to stop staring at the sky. Clearly, that guy deserved to be reincarnated as a stupid turkey who got slaughtered and trussed up on a plate, then slathered with gravy.

"I bet he was dry as hell," she mumbled.

The figure's shoulder-humps shuddered and curved forward slightly. Lucy bit her lips when she heard it snort. "That was a good one. I'll have to remember that for the next soul who comes in."

Lucy shivered only slightly when the wispy material of its grey fabric body brushed against her bare shoulders. It only made her (finally) aware of the fact that she was actually naked. Except for once, she just didn't care. This figure didn't even have eyes to see her with that she could tell. And even if it did have eyes to see her, what was another pair of tits to some being who had probably seen more than its fair share of naked human bodies while guiding them through the reincarnation process?

"Now, any questions before we get started? You're already way behind."

Lucy's lips pursed and she looked at the door he was guiding her toward with its silvery arch and strange runic symbols etched around the jamb. The door itself was nothing more than some kind of wood. She almost wished that she'd asked Laki about the different types of wood, just to be able to identify what this door was made from. But maybe that still wouldn't have helped her at all. Maybe this was some sort of Bitch, you dead! wood.

"No questions? Alright then."

Lucy gasped when she was pushed toward the door, turning back toward the grey clothes that still hovered a foot above the ground. "How do I get back?!"

Its arm-like appendages lifted, and it shrugged. That was the last thing she saw before her body shimmered through the Bitch, you dead! door, and then Lucy was left with the distinct feeling that she didn't want to be reincarnated in this life at all. Not if she was going to be doused in ice cold water from a bucket, like she was right then.

Welcome to the Unholy Trinity!

This particular event was created by MadSoullessQueen, and brought to fruition by some enabling on my part. Unlike other pairing weeks, this is writer's choice under the scope of Lucy and a Fairy Tail villain (past or present). So you guys get to choose which villain to pair her with!

Dates: October 30th, 2018 through November 1st, 2018

Prompts:

Day 1: Blood

Day 2: Rapture

Day 3: Nightmare

This event will obviously be Rated M (it's me, we're talking about... Of course that's the rating…). I'm laying down the blanket disclaimer here:

Please be aware that this is M for a reason.

I mean, we're talking about Lucy and villains for goodness sake.

The rest of my entries might be late for this. I'm not sure yet. I'm excited to write for it, but I also have a ton of shit to do on a constant basis, and I really wanna write for my actual priority stories at some point!

Regardless, I hope you all enjoyed this, and that you'll enjoy what's to come in the next chapters.