(Edited: 10/11/18)

Hey guys! I looked back on these beginning chapters a bit ago and was so shocked at absolutely horrible they were. So I decided to rewrite and edit them. I don't have a lot of free time to do this so it may take a while.

If you are unsure whether they are edited or not, at the very top should be an edited date in brackets.

Thanks for reading, everyone! I appreciate it so much!

"Gajeel!" A small black exceed called out. "I found this girl looking all suspicious sneaking around and giving off a suspicious air, so I bound her hands with this rope I found and brought her here to confirm she wasn't an enemy." he then held up the frazzled rope in his paws, after gesturing to the rope, he yanked on his end, a small girl on the opposite end tumbled into view. She had snow white shoulder length hair and big starry blue eyes.

"Good job Panther-Lily!" Gajeel praised, then he turned to address Natsu, "My cat is so much smarter than yours!"

"Your cat?" Panther-Lily asked. The girl in question had been completely forgotten as if she were never there in the first place as everyone turned to watch them bicker.

"Has anyone noticed he is not even a quarter of his previous height?" Wendy asked the small white exceed in her arms. " We best not expect too much of them." Charle said

"Hey!" Happy cried, "I'm smart too!" his blue fur stood on it's ends as he glared at Gajeel. He really couldn't be mad at Lily, he had yet to do anything to ensure the treatment.

"Are you calling Happy dumb?" Natsu protested "Happy is so not dumb!" his fists were flying in the air animatedly, a small fire lit on his tongue as he spoke while puffs of smoke trailed out of his mouth like a chimney.

"Is too!" Gajeel retorted

"You wanna go metal-face?" Natsu challenged. He pulled his fists up to his face in a fighting position while he bounced on the balls of his feet.

"You're gonna to fight me to see who's smarter?" Gajeel snorted, of course that was ridiculous, but...

"Hell yeah!" Natsu yelled as he lunged for Gajeel.

Erza just stood off to the side watching things play out as they were, she was far too tired to care at the present moment.

"Fire dragon iron f-" before Natsu or Gajeel had a chance to land a single blow Lucy stepped in between the two idiots and she let them know exactly what she was thinking. "Stop being idiots!" she yelled holding her hand in the air in a motion for them to back off.

"We need ro focus on the girl!" she said pointing to the small girl at the end of the rope who had been watching the whole ordeal as if she weren't bound by a rope. Natsu and Gajeel stared at each other for a moment longer, "I said to focus!" Lucy yelled as she took Natsu's face in her hands and cranked his neck to make him look at the girl.

"She's right." Lily said as he yanked on the rope again, the girl fell forward onto her knees into the mud. "Ouch!" she cried "Let me go! This is completely unnecessary!" the white haired girl whined as she looked up to see everyone again. She was too preoccupied when they were fighting to really observe.

First, there was a tall man with long black unruly hair and a lot of iron studs in his face and arms, she probably wouldn't have recognized him if it weren't for those piercing red eye of his. Even if no one had spoken his name, she still would have recognized that man to be Gajeel. 'He looks much more intimidating than Edolos Gajeel.' she thought.

Not too far to his left, leaning aganist a tree was a tall red-haired woman with some familiar silver armor, though it was indented and almost completely useless.She also wore a torn blue skirt and black boots. At first, Lisanna flinched slightly at the sight of this woman, she was the Earthland version of Erza Knightwalker, or more commonly know as the 'Fairy Hunter!'. It was not Knightwalker, but Erza Scarlet.

Next to Erza was a small girl with long dark blue hair holding onto a white exceed as if it were a teddy bear. She had large brown eyes and so did the exceed. The girl wore a pink shirt and green shorts while the exceed wore a brown dress. The girl Lisanna recognized as Wendy but she didn't know the exceed.

A little while off to the side where Gajeel stood was a girl not much bigger than herself with gorgeous golden hair tied into two messy pigtails with her bangs loose to frame her heart shaped face. She wore a green and yellow skirt that almost reached her ankles if it wasn't torn

and a green and yellow bikini top, she also wore brown sandels. She was beautiful, Lisanna felt a twinge of jealousy course through her, but was quick to push that feeling down.

Lucy was currently squishing a pink haired boys face in her hands while trying to turn his face towards the girl and he was having a great time teasing her by not doing anything to let Lucy turn his head, he had a grin plastered on his face and an amused glint in his onyx eyes, a small blue cat sat atop his head. She would recognize those two anywhere; it was Natsu and Happy!

"Look, dammit!" Lucy yelled, as she smacked the back of his head "Fine," Natsu drawled as he turned his head towards the blue eyed girl. His eyes immediately widened and his chuckle died in his throat.

"Lisanna?" He squeaked then his eyes traveled down her body to see the out fit she was wearing, He quickly inferred that she was the Edolas Lisanna and not their Lisanna, their Lisanna was dead, she died two years ago on an S-class mission. His heart squeezed painfully, but that was it, before anyone else had a chance to speak he corrected himself, "No, you're the Edolas Lisanna, why are you here?"

Lisanna looked away as she answered, "I'm not actually the Edolas Lisanna... when the Edolas Lisanna had died, I was transported there by the Anima. I guess I was transported there to fill the void she had created when she died. Elfman thought he killed me, he didn't. The only reason I never told you the first time I saw you in Edolas was because I couldn't hurt Elfman and Mira again like i hurt my Elfman and Mira when I 'died'. Even if they weren't from the same world, they were still my brother and sister and i didn't want to hurt them, but turns out they already knew..." Lisanna trailed off slightly

with a sad smile on her face.

"Oi, Panther-Lily, untie her." Gajeel grunted.

When she was untied, Natsu and Happy ran at her and embraced her in a tight hug. Tears came to his eyes as he hugged her even tighter "I missed you so much, Lisanna." Natsu whispered. He wiped his eyes so tears had no chance to spill down his cheeks..

"LISANNA!" Happy cried, snot was ran down his face mixing with the tears that streamed down his cheeks.

"I missed you, too" Lisanna said.

Lisanna pulls away and smiles at Natsu for a moment before her eyes widen,

"Mira-Jane and Elfman!" She exclaims as she turns to run.

"Lisanna!" Natsu yells, his hand reached out towards her and he began to walk after her, but he was stopped by a hand that grabbed his arm.

"Leave her, Natsu." Erza said, and she smiled. "We will have plenty of time to see her again, but now she needs her family."

He said nothing but watched as Lisanna disappeared in the distance.

"Welcome home." Natsu whispered.

XXX

Back at the Guild

"We shall celebrate Lisanna's return!" Master Makarov yelled.

Everyone cheered as Mira wheeled out two large barrels of booze, one after the other before quickly returning to her younger sisters side. Just about everyone (except for the newer members who hadn't known Lisanna before) had spent an hour crying and hugging her until they could cry no more. They were just so happy that she had returned, what reason for them to not celebrate?

Lucy felt like she didn't belong at that 'celebration' since she didn't even know Lisanna, so she just grabbed her stuff and headed back to her apartment. But before she left, she approached Natsu, who was laughing while holding a mug of what she assumed was beer. He didn't drink often, only for very special occasions. Lucy too, never drank often either.

"Natsu!" she called. He didn't hear. He was animatedly talking to Lisanna. They were so close that one would think they were attached.

"Natsu!" She called again. He finally looked up. "Hey, Lucy!" he greeted. Then he spotted her bag, "Going somewhere?" he asked.

"I was just going home," she shrugged, "Stuff to do."

"Kay, see ya!"

Lucy watched them for a moment longer. It was weird, she had expected him to tell her to stay and enjoy the celebration of one of their friends returning or at least ask her what she had to do, but he didn't.

A feeling of dread washed over her and she was completely unsure why. But before she had time to think about it more, it was gone.

"I'll see you tomorrow?" she asked Natsu.

"Yeah, of course!" he said as he waved goodbye, though his attention was placed elsewhere, and with that she left.

The air outside had cooled considerably causing goosebumps to break out across her skin.

"So cold out," she mumbled to herself. She walked down the streets to her waiting apartment. She got to the river that flowed through Magnolia and balanced herself on the edge like she always did on her walks home, it became almost a reflex to do it now.

"You be careful, Missy! Wouldn't want you falling in." Lucy turned her head towards two old men sitting in a boat rowing to where she assumed was home.

"Yes, sir!" she brought a hand to her forehead in a salute and smiled brightly at them. "Thank you for the concern!"

She continued down the road until she got to her apartment. When she got to the door she half expected Natsu to be lounging on her sofa, eating something from out of her cupboards and Happy scratching away at one of her couches or some other thing she told him not to, but when she opened the door, it too was dark, cold and empty.

Lucy sighed. At least she wouldn't have to deal with anyone right now, right? She was exhausted from their battle in Edolas. But she wouldn't mind the company of one of her celestial spirits. She reached to her hip and pulled up a key.

"I can upon thee in the world of the Celestial Spirits, pass through the gate! Open! Gate of Canis Minor, Nikora!"

A second later Plue appeared.

"Hey, Plue! Can you stay here while I take a bath? I would love the company, it's kind of lonely here." Lucy asked, smiling kindly down at her dog spirit.

"Pupu." Answered Plue as he nodded his quivering head.

"Thanks!" She smiled and grabbed a towel and headed for the bathroom.

She ran a hot bath and poured some rose essential oil into the tub and waited for it to fill up. When it was done, she got in. It was so relaxing for her since her muscles were sore and the water helped relieve her. Her mind was blank of anything except for her odd feeling of loneliness. She knew not how long she was in the bath for, but when she noticed her fingers wrinkling she got out, drained the water and then dried herself off. She pulled on the pajamas she had grabbed from her drawer before she entered the bathroom.

"Did anyone stop by while I was in the bath?" Lucy asked Plue, maybe someone noticed her absence and was checking on her, but her hopes were crushed when he just shook his head no.

"Okay. Thanks, Plue. You can go now if you want." Plue nodded and then disappeared in a cloud of fog.

After Plue left, she hopped into her bed, staring blankly up at her ceiling. Before long her eyelids grew heavy with sleep and fluttered closed. And with that, she fell into a dreamless sleep.

Little did Lucy know that that night was the start of all the pain and suffering that was to head her way.