My Hero
We join our heroes in Hargeon, they took a job to help a village on Toropikaru Island, so they went to Hargeon to take a boat there. "Alright, we better hurry if we want to get to the port before nightfall." "Oh c'mon Erza, can't we take a break to find something to eat, me and Happy are starving." "[sigh] Fine it's a long voyage we might as well eat before leave." On their way to the 8-Island restaurant they heard a loud crash from a nearby store then saw 2 hooded figures run out "Finally some action." "Natsu wait." "FIRE DRAGON IRON FIST!" then 1 of the thieves manifested an energy shield to block his attack, after that they made their escape "Hey! Get back here I'm not done with you yet, c'mon Happy we gotta catch up with them." "Aye sir." Happy holds onto Natsu and flew after the thieves "Natsu! When will he learn to stop running off like that? [sigh] We better go after them before they get hurt." "Lucy's right, let's go." said Erza. Natsu and the others chased the thieves all the way to the woods outside of Hargeon, eventually they got away "Natsu they're gone…we should get back to town it's getting late." "Um Erza, which way is town?" Wendy asked. They all looked around "Good going Natsu you got us lost!" "Relax Gray, one of the benefits of having a good sense of smell is always being able to use your nose to find your way, I'll get us back to town before dinner." "Speaking of dinner, we didn't get to eat earlier and now I'm even hungrier." And so they headed back with nothing but Natsu's nose to guide through the dark forest. They went on for a little while "Hold on, I smell something…over there." Natsu pointed to a nearby tree, they went to see what was there, they were shocked when they saw a guy dressed as a greek warrior knocked out. They tried to wake him up and when he finally did, they assured him he was safe and that they weren't going to hurt him. "Who are you?" "My name is Hercules, and you are?" "I'm Lucy and these are my friends Erza, Gray, Natsu, Wendy, Carla and Happy." "A pleasure to meet all of you." "Hercules can you tell us what happened to you." said Carla "Yes, 3 days ago my mistress' key was stolen by 2 hooded thieves I chased them into this forest, but I lost them before I could retrieve the key, I've been trying to find them, earlier today I crossed paths with the thieves but during the fight, one of them got the jump on me and knocked me out." gets up "I have to get going I don't know how much time I have left." "What do you mean by that?" "Wait you said your mistress' key was stolen, that didn't happen to be a celestial key would it?" "Actually it was." "So then that means…you're a celestial spirit." "Indeed I am." "Well then, you should return to the celestial world and get some rest, you can leave getting back your key to us." "No, it's my key, if anyone's going get it back it's me." "Are you sure you're still up for it." "Don't worry about me Lucy, I'll be fine." "So then it's settled…we should split up to cover more ground, since they've retreated to this forest before, it must mean that their camp is here somewhere, I'll go with Gray while Natsu, Happy, Carla and Wendy look for their camp from above." said Erza "And I'll go with Hercules." "Alright, if anyone finds anything use your lacrima phones to contact the rest, and do not engage until we've all met up, that means you Natsu." "Fine, let's go Happy." So then they went on with their search for the two thieves.
Later with Lucy and Hercules
"Hercules, are you sure we're going the right way?" "To be honest no, but I saw them going in this direction before I blacked out." Then he took notice of Lucy's keys "You're a celestial wizard too I see." "I sure am." "That truly is an impressive set of celestial keys you have there, 9 of the 12 zodiac keys…how did you come across all of them?" "Well, Aquarius, Cancer and Taurus were my first three zodiac celestial spirits, as for the others I got some of them on jobs like Virgo and Sagitarius, and some of them I met in battle, like Scorpio, Aries, Gemini and Capricorn, but for Loke, he's a much more complicated story." "How so?" "When I finally figured out that he was a celestial spirit who had been banished, I tried to open his gate and return him, to the celestial world, even without his key, until I yelled out that the celestial spirit king's judgement was wrong, and he showed up." "The celestial spirit king showed himself to you?" "That's right, anyway, I told him that Loke was innocent, and even though all Loke wanted was to disappear, I just couldn't let that happen, luckily the celestial spirit king saw that he was wrong when I pleaded my case, and lifted Loke's banishment. But it wasn't just for the celestial spirit king to hear, it was for Loke as well, they had to know that him disappearing wouldn't fix the past." "You did through all that just to save him, but why? He wasn't your celestial spirit to begin with." "I did it because I cared about him, whether or not he was my celestial spirit." "I guess you're lucky to have found such powerful spirits to fight for you." "Thanks, but it's not like that, they may fight for me, but I fight alongside them, to protect them just like how they protect me. They aren't just celestial spirits, their like family to me." After that they kept going until they found themselves at the edge of a cliff "It looks like a dead end, we better look for them somewhere else." said Lucy, Hercules walked towards her, but after taking just 3 steps the ground started cracking and eventually they fell off the edge of the cliff, Hercules was able to hold onto the ledge and grab Lucy's hand.
Meanwhile
Natsu and Happy were still looking for the thieves' camp, when suddenly Natsu hears something from the distance "What is it Natsu?" "It's Lucy and Hercules I can hear them, there in trouble, c'mon." "Aye sir." Luckily Lucy was able to spot them as they were flying by "Natsu! Happy! Down here." "Lucy, hold on." "What? Why?" using his strength he tossed Lucy up to the ledge, after she landed safely, the part of the ledge that he was holding onto broke off and he fell, but using her Fleuve d'étoiles she was able to catch Hercules and pull him back up with the help of Natsu and Happy. "Thanks for the save you guys." "Well you did save me first, I was just returning the favour." "Well still, thank you, and sorry about the suddenly tossing you onto ledge thing." "Don't be, after all it worked didn't it?" Then Natsu's lacrima phone started buzzing "Hello?...Erza?...Alright we'll be there in a bit." "What did she say Natsu? Did they find them?" asked Happy "No, she just said to re-group and get some rest, then try again in the morning." After that, they all returned to meet up with the others.
Later that night
They were all fast asleep, except for Hercules he had a lot on his mind. He thought of going for a walk to help clear his head. On his walk, he heard a twig snap from behind, he took a deep breath and sighed "You can come out, I know your there." Then a hooded figure appeared, it was one of the thieves, her name was Tara Yoshi. "What was that back there?" "I don't know what you mean?" "Well I think you do." "Her friends were there, what was I supposed to do?" "Drop her, that's what!" "If they saw me drop her they'd get suspicious." "Then you take care of them." "What if they were to call for help? I'd be out numbered…maybe we should just forget about the keys and find some bigger score." "Hmm…if I didn't know any better, I'd say you're trying to protect that girl." Hercules looked down at the ground and stayed silent "Don't forget why you're doing this and just focus on taking care of that celestial wizard. Do I make myself clear?" "Yes." "Good, now come with me, I have an idea on how to take care of her friends."
The Next Morning
When Lucy woke up she saw that everyone was gone "Guys? Where are you?" "Lucy?" "Hercules, thank goodness someone's still here, where is everybody?" "Uh, they wanted to get a head start, but they didn't want to wake you up, so I told them they could go and that I'd stay here to look after you." "Oh, okay, thanks." After getting ready Hercules told Lucy that they should get going, Lucy followed behind him, unaware of what really happened to her friends.
In a dark cave
"[yawns] Morning guys." said Happy, but when Happy saw that they weren't at their camp site he began to panic, he quickly woke everyone up and they were all baffled as to where they were and how they got there. "Oh good your awake" said Tara "Who are you and why did you bring us here?" asked Carla "Oh don't worry your little head about that, besides, don't you have anything else you'd like to know." "Guys, where's Lucy?" "Now there's you should really be asking." "What have you done with her?" "Calm down Scarlet, I haven't done anything…but I can't say the same for my partner." "Speaking of which, where is your teammate?" "Oh he's with your friend right now…and she doesn't even know it." She chuckled "What are you talking about?" "Why I'm talking about your new friend of course." "Wait, Hercules? But why would he do this?" "Because I asked him to." She pulled out a silver key from her pocket "That's…" "Hercules' key? Indeed it is." "So that's why he's helping you, you were the one who stole his key." "Not even close Titania, I didn't steal this key from his wizard, I AM HIS WIZARD! I sent him your way so he could steal that blonde girl's keys." "So you can sell them?" "Who in the right mind would sell the keys of the zodiac! No, what I want, is to possess those keys for myself, but the rules state that I can't have her keys unless she were to give them to me, or unless..." "She died." Natsu said "Hmph, you're smarter than you look Dragneel, I'll give you that." "You won't get away with this!" he said gripping the bars "Won't I? Because the way I see it, your friend is on her own and you're trapped in a cage made with sealing stone, which should make your chances escape pretty slim…now I would love to stay and chat more, but I have a prize to collect…and a body to get rid of."
Back with Lucy and Hercules
On their search Lucy took a deep soothing breath, having high hopes, but then she looked at Hercules who seemed rather troubled "Hey, I know it's probably none of my business, but if you're worried you can always talk to me about it." "Thanks for the offer, but I'm fine, really." "Okay, just putting it out there." After just a few more steps, some magic runes appeared around Lucy "What the?" "Hercules help me." "I don't think so." "Lucy looks up and sees Tara watching them from a branch, she drops down "Who are you?" "Why don't you tell her Hercules?" "…" "Ughh, fine I'll do it, long story short, he's been playing you…he's been working for me, I mean after all, isn't that what celestial spirits are supposed to do for their wizards." "Your wizard?... I trusted you." "Mhm, yes that was really quite foolish of you." "Alright then, cut to the chase what do you want from me." "Your keys obviously, I'm a celestial wizard just like you, and I could really use a set like yours." "Never! If you want my keys you'll have to pry them from my cold dead hands!" "Funny you should mention that, because that's actually our original plan. Do you see the magic circle around you? I've made it so I could control the space inside it, meaning I could just snap my fingers and be done with you, but where's the fun in that?... So I have something else in mind." Lucy suddenly starts gasping "What did [gasp] you do?" "I'm just ridding your space of oxygen, that way I can get rid of you and watch you suffer." Hercules just stood there, not bearing to watch, but he knew he had a choice to make "Enough!" "What did you say?" he grabs her arm and tosses to a tree knocking her unconscious and breaking the magic barrier. Lucy takes deep breathes and gets back up "Lucy we have to- [slap] ow." "That's for lying to me." She gives him a hug "And this is for saving me." He hugs her back, "I'm really sorry Lucy." He then breaks the hug and tells Lucy that her friends were captured, they run to the cave to free them and upon arriving Hercules goes in while Lucy keeps a look out. He unlocks the cage, but instead of helping them out, he got a punch right to torso from Natsu. He gets knocked down and his eyes widened when they met with the end of Erza's sword "Now tell us, what have you done with Lucy?" and that's when Lucy runs in "Lucy! You're alright." "Yeah, Hercules saved me he's on our side now, for real." "Yes, but we don't have time to talk about this right now, we need to get out of here before Tara catches us." "A little late for that." "She's blocking the exit." Lucy stated "She doesn't look so tough, we can take her." Natsu said, but with a wave of her hand Tara wrote a new barrier, blocking the others and leaving only Lucy and Hercules to face her. "Dark Écriture…" "Lucy look out!" "…Destruction." Hercules uses his shield from before to protect them, then summons energy swords and fires them at Tara, but she dodges them "Star Dress: Taurus Form, what do you say we take this outside." She kicks her out of the cave "Earth wave!" "Dark Écriture: Flight." She flies up and attacks Lucy head on, she lifts her off the ground and then drops her. Lucy summoned her Aries Star Dress and used wool to soften the landing "That was too close, so got any ideas." "I may have one." He whispered to her his plan, then she went into the forest "Oh, what's wrong? Your partner flaked out on you." "This is just between you and me." She lands "I couldn't agree more." He fires more energy swords at her "Dark Écriture: Reflect." "AUGH!" "It's time for you to pay, traitor! Dark Écriture: Suffering!" "AAAAHHHH!" "You probably shouldn't have asked your friend to leave." "I didn't… just tell her to leave… I told her… to get to high ground." "What?" "STAR SHOT!" she gets struck with multiple arrows from the tree, and once she was down, her runes were undone. Lucy comes down to help Hercules "Are you alright?" "I am now." Tara gets up "You blonde brat! You're gonna wish you had never cr-" Natsu gives her strong hit on the head knocking her out "That's for cheating me out of the action."
After they were sure she was down for the count this time, they took her back to Hargeon and had her arrested "Thanks Fairy Tail, this thief has been a thorn in our side for months." "You're quite welcome." Erza said "Lucy, where's Hercules?" Wendy asked "He said he wanted to stay outside for a bit." "Maybe you should check on him." "…Maybe I will." She found him just standing by the entrance "You okay out here?" "Yeah…Lucy, thank you." "For what?" "For helping me." "You mean with your plan? Sure thing." "Not just with the plan. Lucy, I had always known that what we were doing was wrong, but the rules kept me from doing anything about it. But when you told me about how you and your spirits fought to help and protect each other, I realized I wanted to do the same thing, I wasn't just fighting for myself, I wanted to protect you… and now that Tara's been arrested my contract with her is void, and if you'll allow me, I'd like to make a contract with you." "Really?" "Yes, I want to be there, to help you, to protect you." "Okay… I'd be delighted to make a contract with you." he smiles at her and hands Lucy his key "Feel free call me whenever you need me." "Thanks, but I think it's high time you got some rest." "You're probably right. I hope to see you again soon." He disappears and returns to the celestial world. "Hey Lucy, look! They gave us this huge reward for throwing that thief into the slammer." "What happened to Hercules?" "Don't worry Wendy, he's fine, he's gone back to the celestial world." "Man I can't wait to rub this reward in Gajeel's face." "I hope none of you have forgotten that this wasn't the job we took, and that we still have to go to Toropikaru Island." They all become silent as they had a shocking realization "There's still some daylight left, we should get a boat, before the port closes." And so, despite just taking a job, they went to finish the real job they signed up for. They didn't mind really, after all, they've always been up for an adventure.