Chapter 1: Weakness

Lucy was tired of always needing the others to come to her rescue. So when they returned from their latest mission she planned a little training time with Capricorn and Loke. The others left for the guild for some food and relaxation she begged off.

"I'm going to head home you guys" Lucy said quietly as six pairs of eyes looked to her.

"Lucy-san, are you okay?" Wendy asked, looking at her in concern

"Yea, I'm fine." Lucy focused on Natsu's black eyes "I'm just tired from the long trip."
Erza looked at her blond friend, "That makes sense." Her brown eyes slid sideways to glare at Natsu "You had to take care of someone on the train."

While Wendy still gazed at her in concern Gray had taken up bullying Natsu for his motion sickness

"Lushy~you want some fish?"

Lucy smiled at Happy before shaking her head. "No thanks, Happy. I just wanna get home and relax."

"I'll keep you company while I eat your yummy fish~"

"She doesn't want your fish, idiot cat!"

As Lucy watched Charla berate Happy, Happy cried and started circling Natsu and Gray who were getting louder in their insults.

An eye twitch started on Erza's left eye as she glared at the group.

"ENOUGH!" The group looked in surprise at Wendy. Wendy herself took a deep calming breath then continued scrutinizing the blonde. "Lucy-san…are you okay?" she asked again.

"Lucy smiled again. Did Wendy notice that I'm forcing myself? "I'm fine."

And with Wendy and Natsu still watching she turned with a wave and started home.

Lucy walked into her apartment dropped all her travel gear by the door and flopped down on her bed face down. She thought over what her weaknesses were as she let her achy muscles start to relax. I have little physical fighting strength, little practical magic use, and compared to the others, I'm slow on my feet.

She pushed herself up and headed towards the kitchen to make herself a light lunch. The physical training will be easiest to set up Lucy sighed and the hardest for me to complete. As Lucy pulled out bread she touched her hand to her keys "Open, Gate of the lion, Leo. Open, Gate of the goat, Capricorn" came the quiet chant that had a flash of light leaving two of her most loyal spirit friends.

"Lucy?" Loke watched his blonde master place the loaf of bread on the table. It was odd for her to actually summon him. Mostly, he just came through the gate on his own.

"Lucy-sama?" To summon both myself and Leo, something must be wrong

While her two friends looked at her she continued to look down at the table. Capricorn had trained her before the grand magic games. But, that was to raise her magical prowess…not on ways to use her magic with more practicality. She slowly raised her eyes to look at the two spirits in her dining room.

"Can you help me train my weaknesses?"

"Luc-"
"Of course, Lucy-sama!" Capricorn cut Leo off.

Loke glared at Capricorn as the goat bowed over her hand. She's already strong...why does she feel the need to get stronger?

"I'll send word to Mira" Lucy looked down at her table again. "I'd like to get started as soon as possible."

"Will we be training in this realm, Lucy-sama?"

Leo looked over to Lucy at Capricorns question. She didn't look up and her eyes took on a calculating look. "Yes. I don't want days to pass here when I would only get one day of training in, in the spirit realm." Her eyes rose to look in Lokes eyes. "We'll need a place where the others won't find us easily though. You know of a place from when you were one of the guilds mages?"

Loke sighed. She was serious about this and while he wished to help her no matter what something didn't feel right about this. "Yes, though if any of the dragon slayers start to sniff you out they'll eventually be able to find us."

Lucy looked into Lokes eyes for a long minute before looking at Capricorn. "I guess the first thing I'll need to learn then is how to make a barrier."

"Then I'll go and prepare Lucy-sama." Capricorn executed a short bow before disappearing in a flash of light

Lucy turned to her desk leaving the loaf of bread on the table and Loke looking at her with concerned eyes. "When you're done with the letter I'll take it over to Mira so you can pack and eat something."

Lucy nodded and set about to writing her letter to the guild.

Dear Mira,

I decided to get some training in while the team was back for a break. You can tell everyone I'll be back shortly but what I'm doing is secret celestial mage training and have to be alone for it. I'll be sending either Loke or Virgo into town to check my mail every morning so if you need to get word to me just slip a note in the box.

I'm not telling Natsu or the team where I'm going because I don't want them to come and "help". Just let them know I'll be back soon and that it'll be pointless to sniff me out.

Thanks, Lucy

Author's note:

I tend to lose track of characters when there are too many so I apologize if the parts where they are in the groups are short and sparse. I try and get the image down then add to it but it's so hard for me to keep up with all the characters present for that scene. Also, I'm trying to stay as close as possible to the original character personalities as I can while still giving them what they need for my story! I love the characters as is and wouldn't want to change them…just want to continue their story in a dreamed up direction.

Also, this is my first time writing a fanfiction…I generally tend to like making up my own characters because I like to mold their personalities the way I see fit…this is more challenging but still really fun! Please be kind but critical when you rate me!