Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail. All characters and locations belong to Hiro Mashima.
In the bustling city of Magnolia stands the strongest mage guild in all of Fiore: Fairy Tail. This guild may be loud when they are quiet, destructive in nature, and prone to break rules, but the members hold the ability to love their nakama unconditionally. By pure luck and coincidence, it is with the tremendous strength cultivated through the unbreakable bonds of friendship within fairy tail that the world is saved from the greatest power of all, to be in the hands of a human, being used wrongfully.
Lucy Heartfilia, of Fairy Tail, is about to stumble upon the immense source of power, which should (arguably) never be given to a single mortal being, but because of Lucy's conviction for justice and tenacity for understanding an objective value of "good" she is able to use the power with deep consideration.
We find Lucy Heartfilia in a forest near Hargeon, with her partners Natsu Dragneel and Happy, as they attempt to finish a battle without destroying the neighboring city. This battle has a mediocre reward for the team, but because of the location they were compelled to accept the mission from the guild's mission board. Hargeon was, in fact, where this particularly strong team had first met.
While in the throngs of battle, Happy is flying Natsu above an enemy Monster bent on crushing the mayor of Hargeon, while Lucy wears her virgo outfit and calls out Loke to aid in the battle. The monster towers above them in a snake-like stance, whipping it's tongue out, while emanating poison from it's pores. The eyes are a deep purple that are creepy enough to persuade Lucy to fight near it's rear at the tail of the beast.
Natsu nearly defeats the beast in one fiery dragon roar as Loke hits it with his magical lion sunlight bursts. Lucy prepares to kick the beast in a strategically weak location, that she has yet to find, by circling the action from below. She hears Loke cry out in the knick of time, "WATCH OUT," just as she stumbles away from the falling beast-limbs.
Lucy falls back and scrambles away from the finished battle. She prepares to stand and return to her team mates, but finds herself grabbing a branch that leads her down a sudden hole near the newly disembodied tree. The recent fight caused a particularly old, and magically cursed, tree to collapse which freed the essence inside while bringing Lucy to a 4th dimension. To the eyes of her teammates, Lucy appeared to have disappeared, but to Lucy, she was in the same location.
The forest looked the same, smelled the same, and the air tasted the same, but it was too quiet. She turned around in a circle, confused at her current predicament, as she discovered a bright light floating near her, bouncing around. It almost seemed to be excited, and she walks towards it out of fervent curiosity.
The light floats around in glee, ecstatic to be free of the cursed tree and able to move from dimension to dimension as it pleases. Soon, the light notices the blonde girl peaking up at it with dazzled eyes, and the light knows it must thank it's savior. The light encompasses the girl, surrounding itself around her body as it processes the information inside her and instantly memorizing every aspect of her life.
"Lucy Heartfilia," booms the light, (Lucy jumps from shock) "thank you from freeing me from my prison. When you stumbled across, and broke, the tree I was captured in you freed me from an eternity of cursed living. I will return you to your own time soon, however I have a gift for you. If you would like it."
Although Lucy was still startled from the aura of the speaking light, she resigned herself to listen thoughtfully to her incoming gift. She couldn't refuse a gift from a bubble of light could she? It would be rude not to listen…Her friends could wait for her. "I would like to hear your offer, and thank you for speaking to me. I am amazed at your presence. Would you mind telling me what you are?"
Lucy thought she heard something resembling a chuckle escape the flowing light that glowed in front of her, "I am the essence of time, the essence of emotion, the essence of matter, and of all that could be. I'm similar to the human's concept of a God, but without the ability to create. I simply am. My destiny has been to watch the universe with minimal interaction between other beings capable of intellectual thought.
However, because of a curse put on me by a jealous human mage, I was prevented from my duty for hundreds of years. It is in this instance alone that I will offer a human one of my talents. I will grant one wish. It can be anything, because I am capable of everything since I live outside of time. You must realize the colossal power of this action I am allowing you to have. With this wish you can change the course of life and death, in your future or the past, and good or bad could follow.
With this gift I will give you a lacrima tied to my existence that will show you the after effects of a wish you're interested in before you make it. When you are ready I will appear again. Be wise, young girl. And remember your heart as you contemplate this. I advise you to keep it secret until you have chosen a wish."
Lucy had tears forming in her eyes, the realization of the possibilities impacting her rational thinking, as she took the Lacrima from the floating light. The lacrima entwined itself around her wrist in an unbreakable lock until decision time. She blinked at the light, speechless, before vanishing from the fourth dimension and returning to her friends in the forest.
She was sitting on the ground nearby the location of the previous battle. Unable to move, Lucy sat there crying while her thoughts spun in a chaotic mess of potential wishes. She was so worried, excited, and thankful for this opportunity. Lucy didn't want to waste it on a selfish whim, so she told herself to wait until she was alone before looking into the depths of the lacrima with her internal wishes.
Although it had only been a few minutes since the battle ended, Loke and Natsu were running around the forest looking for Lucy. They were confused at her absence and Natsu was about ready to make the forest explode from fire when he spotted her blonde hair in the distance. He ran to her side calling her name, and snickering to himself that he found her before Loke. As he reared the distance between them, Natsu saw tears gliding down her cheeks and instantly rushed to her side to stoke her back.
"Luce…," Natsu quietly said, "why are you crying? I hate it when you cry…What is it Luce?…" In a flash of anger Natsu threw a fist into the ground yelling, "WHO DO I NEED TO ATTACK FOR MAKING YOU CRY? LOKEEEE!"
Lucy's face flushed as she giggled at her best friend's crazy antics, he will never change, she thought. Lucy racked her brain for an answer, knowing she couldn't tell him the truth, while pretending to cry hard enough to not be able to speak. Her tears saved her the time to think, if she could hide her feelings from him, then she could hide the lacrima and wish from him too.
She sighed, knowing the only answer that he would really understand, "using my keys in battle reminded me of my mom. I don't know why I suddenly thought of her…(hiccup)…but she crossed my mind. So, when the battle ended I ran over here to pull myself together and turned into a blubbering mess." Lucy smiled up at Natsu, "I'm sorry if I worried you Natsu, it won't happen again this close to a battle. I'll control it more if it happens again."
She let her head gently rest against his shoulder as she hummed in contentment at his warmth. Knowing that a compliment from the battle would keep him from asking more questions, she added, "you were amazing Natsu! You're so strong and your fire attacks were exceptional today. I hope we can train together soon. Maybe we can fight!"
At that, Natsu fist pumped the air in excitement, "Of course Luce! I'm always up for a fight. Hahaha Yes! We will fight as soon as we get back to the guild...after we eat!"
Lucy snorted at Natsu, but was happy to let the question drop. Happy was laying against a tree nearby, relaxing, and not caring about Lucy's crying. Happy was tempted to make fun of her, but with Natsu so close, Happy decided to keep his jokes to himself. When Loke saw the nearness between his master and Natsu, he decided to return to the spirit world. Lucy could feel his departure through her magic.
The team stood up and began the trek to Hargeon to disclose to the mayor that they successfully completed the mission. Natsu flamed the beast into a pile of ashes to be on the safe side…and because it was fun. The trio laughed at Natsu's growling stomach as they neared the town and prepared to feast on the mayor's dime. They had successfully completed the mission without breaking anything in Hargeon (the forest not included). It was a rare occasion and they intended to reek every benefit from it.
Natsu devoured the spicy soup and cookies set out at the mayor's house, Happy enjoyed a fresh local fish, and Lucy ate bi bim bop as they listened to the mayor's thanks. At the end of a successful mission it was well-known that the mayor would invite the mages to his house for dinner and this was the first time he had invited this particularly raucous team to his house.
Team Natsu collected their reward money as they headed out the door. Lucy kept Natsu's hand in her own so that he wouldn't try to burn anything on the way out. She was going to leave Hargeon in-tact this time! Even though it was late, Lucy convinced Natsu to leave right away (by offering her bed that night) instead of the morning. She was further protecting their reward money by getting Natsu out of there quick. You could never be too careful when it came to Natsu fights, because you never knew when another Fairy Tail member could be nearby and that often put him in a Natsu-minded version of friendly battle mode.
Happy flew through the gate doors of the train while Lucy pushed a groaning Natsu, who was begging to walk home, onto the train. They took their seats in a secluded area of the train as it departed Hargeon. Natsu had his head in Lucy's lap within seconds, with a green tinge to his face, while Happy decided to take a nap on the seat across from them. For some reason Natsu always pulled himself onto the same seat as Lucy, no matter how sick he was.
She looked out the window and pulled her hands through Natsu's hair. Her thoughts returned to the Lacrima around her wrist while she silently brainstormed potential wishes. She could wish for something that could benefit the world, or Fairy Tail, or just her. She could wish for Natsu's love, heheh, but then she would always doubt if it were true…Lucy continued to brainstorm the possibilities as her eyes closed, content to listen to the puffs of the train, and she drifted into sleep.