A/N: Hey there! Thanks for dropping by. While working on my other Fairy Tail related fic, I decided to start a new one. Rather spontaneously at that. The idea came to me two days ago, I outlined 18 chapters and decided to just go through with it right away. So who knows how it'll end up!

The fic takes place between the Edolas & S-class arcs, and has a good number of couples in it. However, if you aren't caught up with the manga, you might not have knowledge about key characters present in the story. Why aren't you caught up anyways?! ;_; This arc is so good! Get to it!

In any event, I hope you enjoy.

Have a fun ride!

It was a typical day at the guild, or so Lucy wished. With the Master out to a meeting, key members in the all esteemed guild of fairies were in a heated debate. A debate in Fairy Tail? About what? One had to wonder. Given this was a guild of innocent troublemakers who always left a mess wherever they went, you would assume they were planning on throwing a party or celebration or what have you. That was to be expected from Fairy Tail after all. Surprisingly, this wasn't the case. For the last month, ever since the Edolas event, the whole of the guild had been trying to find a way to recruit a certain mage.

Now, you wouldn't think that to be a big deal, until you understood exactly who they wanted. Jellal Fernandes. The man sent to prison for federal treason. The same man who completed the Tower of Paradise, and manipulated the council to fire Etherion. Nearly the whole of Fairy Tail wanted him in the guild.

Of course, given the reputation of the guild, they tended to act before thinking. Whenever Natsu figured out a plan to bust the criminal mage out, Grey would shoot it down with "He's a criminal, if we bust him out, we're up to be sentenced too." Natsu would just try to find an alternative. Jellal could act like Mystogan! People would nod in agreement. Some would find another problem with the situation and call it out. They would sit there and ponder until they found a solution.

This had been going on for an entire month. There was one mage however who was sick and tired of it. She hated Jellal. She had no idea how everyone else had forgiven him so easily. All the things he had done to Erza, the fear he had put in her, the way he had treated her, Simon's death. It was as though everyone had forgotten all about it, Erza included. She was too busy being swayed by the potential idea that the guy she liked would be back in her arms soon. That didn't sound like Erza at all. But whenever Jellal was mentioned, she would turn to mush. And Lucy Heartfilia was sick of it all. She loved her friends, but she would never accept Jellal Fernandes into the guild. If he got in, she'd get out.

Was it unfair? Sure. She was forcing her friends to choose. She was forcing Erza to choose. Why would she even have to choose? The answer was right in front of her! Jellal should stay in prison. It was as simple as that. Lucy still couldn't believe that Natsu had called him their friend during Nirvana's attack. Friend? FRIEND?! After all he had put Erza through?! What was Natsu's problem? Just because Erza was smitten with the guy didn't mean Natsu had to claim that they were friends. Sometimes, Fairy Tail was just unbelievable. It felt as though Lucy was the only logical person in the guild. She wished Mystogan was still here. Then, Erza could have fallen for him instead and all would be well. Why did she have to be in love with a criminal of all people?! Lucy remembered Erza's confession that it was in fact Jellal who had saved her from the Tower and not Natsu, but was that really enough? Was her life being saved really enough to forget about everything that happened?!

"Ok! I've figured out the perfect plan!"

Her inner ranting was interrupted, and she looked towards Natsu from her seat at the bar, one hand under her chin, the other resting on her knee.

"Let's see what stupidity you have in store now," Grey exclaimed, ready for the worst.

"Hey! My ideas are foolproof. You guys are just too scared to take chances," Natsu retorted.

"Yeah, yeah. Just get to it already," the ice mage motioned with his hand.

"We won't even make a scene. We'll just sneak in, get him out, and replace him with another criminal! We'll use shapeshifting magic! So when people see him on the streets or taking missions, we can just claim he's Mystogan, from Edolas!" He seemed so proud of his supposedly yet again foolproof plan.

"Natsu," Erza spoke after a good amount of silence

"You like my plan, Erza?" He smiled. "We'll get him back in no time!"

"Do you actually think that plan will work? How are we supposed to get him out without any commotion? It's not like we can just walk in there," the requip mage shook her head.

"Sure we can! We'll just have Mira over here shapeshift into that council guy or one of the guards! She'll go in, get him out and we'll just throw in some random criminal in there, and done! Jellal will be free!"

Of course, no one took his plan seriously. Shaking their heads, they decided to go back to the drawing board. An hour later, they were throwing ideas left and right. Lucy was sick of it. Sick? Understatement. She wanted to get away from the guild as fast as possible. So she got up. She got up and this garnered the unwanted attention of the entire guild.

"Lucy! Do you have an idea?!" Natsu went to her and prompted her.

"Idea?" It had a sting to it. "Idea?!" She let her anger out. "Even if I HAD an idea, I would never share it with any of you. You know what? Maybe I do have an idea. How about we do this? We forget that man exists and move on with our lives. All he's ever done is cause pain to people we care about but apparently that's all behind you now. You want him in Fairy Tail?! Have you forgotten what happened in the Tower of Paradise? Have you forgotten what he put Erza through for so long?! What is wrong with you guys?!"

Natsu held her from her shoulders, trying to have her face him, "Lucy, Lucy please calm down. Jellal, he...Yeah, he did some pretty bad stuff, specially to Erza. But Erza's forgiven him. It isn't fair to hold a grudge on the guy if the one person he caused the most amount of pain to forgave him already."

"That's what I don't understand! How can you forgive him so easily, Erza?! Is it because you're in love with him?!"

Erza looked away. She didn't know what to say. Had she forgiven him? Sure. Should she have? She wasn't too sure, but at the same time, given not all of it was his fault, she felt bad putting all the blame on him. He had saved her life too! That had to mean something. He even helped beat the Oracion Seis! Erza's feelings were in a disarray.

"I'm done. I can't do this anymore," the entire guild looked at her confused.

"What are you talking about, Lucy?" Erza let out quietly, worried about what the girl actually meant.

"If you want Jellal in the guild so bad, then go and get him. You've been planning it for over a month now anyways. But I'm done. If Jellal joins, I'm leaving for good," resolute in her decision, she made her way to the entrance of the guild, only to be stopped by Natsu.

"Lucy, think of what you're saying! You'd abandon your family because of one guy?" Natsu tried to plead with her. He couldn't lose Lucy.

"You'd put your family at risk because of one guy?!" Lucy retorted back, eyes beginning to swell with tears. Natsu wanted to hold her. Hold her and apologize. He had no idea how much pain Lucy was actually going through. He wasn't sure why she was going through the pain, but he decided he'd find out. He wanted Lucy happy. He wanted to protect her. He never wanted to make her cry!

"Lucy," Erza walked up to her. "I'm so sorry. We can be a little inconsiderate sometimes. Hey, come on. Let's go for a walk and we can talk," the scarlet haired mage whispered with a faint smile.

"I don't want to talk, Erza. I just want a break. I am sick and tired of all of this. Just, leave me alone. Please."

The guild was in silence. All that could be heard were Lucy's retreating footsteps. Both Natsu and Erza thought the same thing. "I can't let her go. I might never see her again." But neither of them moved. Both stayed in their places, feeling like equal failures.

Lucy felt like shit. No, it wasn't an understatement. She really did feel like shit. She was an ass to Natsu and Erza. She was being hysterical. Some of which she said did make sense, but her hatred didn't. Of course, she knew that if she thought about it long enough and admitted to it, everything made sense. But could she be bothered with it? No. Would she be bothered with it? No. Even if she didn't go deep down into her psyche, the point remained that Jellal wasn't someone Fairy Tail should have been friends with. His actions weren't something that could be so easily forgiven, but apparently they were. What? Did Erza and Natsu know something Lucy didn't? Something Jellal only told those two who happened to tell the entire guild but her? What was it? Was he being mindcontrolled? Manipulated? If he was being mindcontrolled, then she supposed she could forgive him. But manipulation and mindcontrol weren't the same thing. Say he was being manipulated. He allowed himself to be controlled, he didn't bother fighting back, and then he became engulfed in darkness. So whose fault is that? Sure, it's the fault of the person who manipulated him, but it's also his fault! Why didn't he fight back?! He should have fought back!

Lucy shook her head. There was no point in thinking about it any longer. She'd just take a few days away from the guild to sort through her thoughts and decide on the next course of action. She in no way wanted to leave Fairy Tail. She loved every single person in the guild. The person she was in love with was also in the guild. Of course they were being stupid and unreasonable, but that was Fairy Tail for you. Then again, Lucy herself was being unreasonable too, so she couldn't really complain too much.

The blonde finally decided to stop walking and was flabbergasted. It was night! The moon was shining! Where the hell was she?! A forest! She didn't even remember walking here. She thought she was just walking to her apartment. She wasn't lost, she knew the place, it was the forest where Porlyusica resided. But the question was, how the hell did she end up here?! Was she busy mulling, ranting, raging so much that she didn't pay attention to where she was going? It was possible, she had to admit. Shaking her head, she decided to just go back home.

It had been a long month. Natsu and Erza would forgive her, that much she knew. But the unfair question was, could she forgive them? Why did they even need to be forgiven? Had they done anything wrong? Erza was in love with Jellal. It was normal to want him back. And Natsu thought of Jellal as a friend after fighting alongside him. Lucy felt like an idiot. A jealous idiot. What was she jealous of though? She didn't want to vocalize it. She knew full well there was no real "remedy" for her jealousy. There was nothing that could be done about it.

Slowly making her way back, she couldn't help but wonder if Jellal had feelings for Erza.

'Sure, he has amnesia, but do you forget your feelings too?' She wondered how it would feel if that person forgot about her. How hurt she would be. And even hypothetically, it hurt a lot. She supposed she understood how Erza felt when hit with the act that Jellal had no recollection of her.

Lucy had to apologize. Her behaviour was unforgivable. Erza was in love, who was she to get in the way of it? Who was she to say "NO!"? She wasn't Erza's parent. She was her friend. A friend who had promised to support her no matter what.

Her thoughts were put on hold when she heard rustling. Her fear meter skyrocketed and her fight or flight system activated. Adrenaline began pumping through her as she readied her hand to grab her keys. But nothing happened. No one attacked her. A bit of rustling was heard again. Lucy's curiosity kicked in and she started moving towards the rustling. The only sounds that could be heard in the quiet forest were cicadas, the gentle breeze and the rustling that stopped.

The blonde finally detected the cause of the rustling. A heavily injured woman was under a tree, the moon shining on her, as though leading the celestial mage to her. Lucy ran up to her and knelt down. She was naked with a deep diagonal gash going from her left shoulder all the way to her stomach. Her loose dark blonde hair was dirtied with blood and she was panting heavily.

Lucy was terrified. This woman was going to die if she left her there. She decided that the best course of action was to run to Porlyusica's and ask her for help. As she was about to get up, her hand was grabbed, causing her to scream. Quickly covering her mouth with her free hand, she fell on her butt.

"I'll be right back. I'm just going to go get my friend, she'll patch you up!" Lucy tried to get out of the woman's grasp. For someone who was near death, she was strong.

The dark blonde haired woman swallowed, and let out very quietly with a very raspy yet soothing voice, "I'll be fine. Just get me shelter." Her grasp weakened and she fell quiet, having fainted.

Shelter?! How?! She was bleeding! If Lucy moved her, the woman would probably die. Unless she had an unlimited amount of blood. Shaking her head rigoursly, Lucy decided to take the stupid risk.

"Open the Gate of the Lion!"

It wasn't a bad idea. Loke could have carried her to Lucy's apartment no problem! Right? Right? She had no idea. She decided to not think about it.

"Lucy, I don't think this is a good idea," Loke hesitated when Lucy relayed her plan.

"Why not? What's wrong?"

"She's not human," he said pointing to the woman.

"Neither are you, Loke," Lucy replied, unsure of what he meant.

"She smells like a demon."

"D-Demon? It doesn't matter. There is no reason to prejudice! She doesn't seem like a bad person, so please Loke. Help me. I felt like an ass enough today at the guild."

Loke nodded and listened to his mage's orders. Carrying the woman in his arms and Lucy on his back, he swiftly made it to the apartment, where he lay the fainted woman on the bed. He was thanked and dismissed.

Letting out a deep sigh, Lucy decided to get to business. She filled a bath bucket with warm water, grabbed some towels and a good amount of gauze bandages present in her room. A mage always had to be ready after all!

She didn't really know what to do, but she couldn't just leave the woman there, bleeding on her bed. The dark blonde demon (as Loke called her) was breathing heavily. It seemed that she might end up with a fever. As though bleeding to death wasn't enough. Wetting one of the towels, Lucy began to trace around the gash to clean it. Thankfully, the woman didn't spontaneously wake up and attack her.

Once she had cleaned the wound, as successfully as she thought, she began to bandage the woman's well endowed chest. She decided to summon Virgo, because doing it alone was too complicated and it didn't help that the woman wasn't exactly super light either. Once complete, Lucy put clean bedcovers on the woman. That's when Virgo stated the same thing as Loke.

"Princess, please be careful around this woman. Who knows what she is. I can say she definitely isn't human though."

Virgo had insisted to stay with Lucy until the woman woke up, to make sure her owner was safe. Lucy told her that she would be fine, and promised to summon her when she was in trouble. Though weary, Virgo eventually gave up and returned to the celestial world.

Exhausted, Lucy sat on the floor, her back touching the bed. What had she gotten herself into this time? Maybe she should call her team. But it was late. Very late. She was surprised she hadn't fallen asleep.

Her room was completely quiet. The only thing that could be heard was the sleeping woman's relaxed, equal breathing. The potential for a fever might have passed, to which Lucy was grateful.

She decided to think back on the day's happenings. Her anger towards Jellal was justified, but it might have been a bit too aggressive. She felt like she might have behaved like a child, and felt bad about it. She just cared about her friends, she didn't want them hurt. She thought about it. She could have grown to forgive Jellal and accept him into Fairy Tail one day. If he had truly changed and if Erza really loved him, Lucy would have to give him a chance for the redhead's sake. Natsu didn't easily forgive people who hurt his friends, but he forgave Jellal. Which meant the guy couldn't be THAT bad. Natsu may have had his bouts of stupidity, but he was a pretty smart guy in his own right.

The blonde decided to try putting things into perspective. Say she was in love with a person accused of federal treason, would she try to get them out of their predicament? Well. For one, she wouldn't be in love with a criminal. Ok, change of perspective. What if the person she was in love with abandoned Fairy Tail and joined a dark guild? What would she do then? Would she try to get them back? She had no idea. She was too tired to think of such questions after everything that happened.

Her mulling came to a stunning halt when she heard groggy sounds from behind her. Turning over on her knees, the first thing she noticed was piercing blood red eyes looking at her. They were gorgeous but terrifying, just like their owner.

Said owner tried to get up but was stopped by Lucy's hand.

"Please don't move. You should rest for a bit longer. That was a pretty deep wound," she lowered her back onto the bed very gently.

'Deep wound? I was wounded? Unbelievable. How? Did it really fail? Damn it.'

Looking at Lucy, the woman let out quietly, "Who are you?"

"Me? Oh, well, I guess you don't remember. I'm the girl who saved you in the forest. I was going to call for help, but you wanted shelter really bad and I didn't have time to waste so I brought you over to my place," she was rambling really. The woman had that impact on her. "How about you?"

'I was saved by a human. What a riot those idiots are going to have when they hear of it. Maybe I should kill her. Tempting. But I sense something in her. Something brewing. A darkness. How interesting.'

She actually didn't feel like moving. She just wanted to rest. After recuperating, she'd decide what to do. 'I can't believe that disgusting creature beat me. I can't even remember what happened! How shameful. What a complete failure.'

"Hellooooo?" Lucy was waving her hand in front of the woman, looking rather silly.

"What?" The dark blond let out coolly.

"Who are you?" Lucy felt annoyed. She had ignored her. Well, she couldn't really blame the woman who was still healing, so she decided to let it go. She was just grateful that the woman seemed well.

Looking at the blonde, the woman in the bed merely let out, "Kyouka."

A/N: Welp, that's the end of Chapter 1.

Let me know what you think! Chapter 2 will be out relatively soon.