CHAPTER 1

I slammed the door shut behind me and groaned. It was another long day at work. Being the CEO of FTI was hard work. Especially with all of those idiots running around, but hey, they got the job done. I made it into the kitchen and shrugged off my jacket onto the counter adjacent to me. I noticed some mail and a package on the table but decided to open it up later. I opened the fridge and smiled, having the greatest idea in the world. I grabbed the jug of milk and the jelly jar, closing the fridge door behind me, I made my way over to the bread box. I reached above me, into one of the many cupboards in the state of the art kitchen, and grabbed the peanut butter.

Oh, peanut butter. I thought. The most amazing product in the world. I rolled my eyes, smiling, and started making a sandwich.

Once my sandwich was finished, I poured a glass of milk. I liked a lot of peanut butter and the only way to balance it, was with good old fashioned milk. I was about to take a bite when a bright, golden light filled the room. I sighed and put the sandwich down.

"LUCY~!" was the only warning I got before I was given a huge hug from behind. I stumbled under his weight and knocked over my glass of milk. The white liquid was spreading over the counter in a very abstract way.

I growled slightly, "Loke..." I warned. He immediately let go. I turned around to face the celestial spirt. He was wearing his usual fancy suit and sunglasses and his fiery orange hair was in disarray. He had big smile on his face but his eyes showed that he was sorry about the milk.

I sighed and rolled my eyes, turning to clean up the milk. "What's up?"

I heard a sigh of relief from behind me; He knew he was safe from the famous Heartfilia wrath and was forgiven. He came around the counter, smiling, and took the paper towel I had been using to clean up the milk with, and started cleaning up the milk himself.

"I was just thinking," He answered. "That you could use a break from work, because I know how much you've been working lately, and me being the most considerate person/spirit in the world-"

"You wanted a sandwich didn't you?" I smiled, seeing through his ruse.
He smiled as well, knowing that he'd been caught. "Only if my princess doesn't mind."

"Please, you know it doesn't bother me," I said while getting the ingredients back out. "I mean its the least I could do for you."

"THANK YOU LUCY-HIME~!"

I laughed.

"So... how was work?" He asked, throwing away the paper towel and siting at the table.

I smiled broadly. "We've just set up a new proposition to trade magic lacrimas to America. It's still in the beginning stages, but I have a good feeling about this."

"Oh my god, Lucy, that's amazing! I'm so proud of you!" He came over and gave me a huge bear hug. I hugged him back just as hard. "You're parents would be proud of you too," He whispered.

I pulled back, tearing up. "You think so?"

"I know so."

I smiled. "Thank you."

My mother died when I was very young from an incredibly rare sickness that they couldn't cure in time to save her. She was a celestial mage too, and when she died, I inherited her keys. I've collected more over the years, but I use her's the most.

I was raised by my father to be a "proper" yet "modern" woman. He was some high government official so I rarely saw him. He was devastated by my mother's death and never remarried. He resigned his seat for a lower one and took some government desk job. He had hoped that by taking a different job, he could spend more time with me, but her kept getting pulled back into work, sending me off to lessons. I didn't mind much, at least he was trying. After a few years, I saw even less of him. He was constantly on the phone or in his study. While he was doing that, I went to my fathers lessons and afterwards, was getting magic training from one of my mother's spirits, Capricorn. He trained me to the point of where I didn't even need my spirits to protect myself. Of course he went a little overboard at the time, because when show and tell came along, I was the only 8 year old who knew how to create things out of magic, like a dog or a gun. The latter got me into trouble with the teacher... and my dad... and Capricorn.

So it wasn't the perfect childhood, but it was the only one I had. And I was pretty happy with it. But then...

My dad was on his way home from the office. He called ahead, and told the babysitter to have a bag packed for me by the time he got home. He wouldn't say why, but said that we were going on a trip ad wouldn't be back for a while. He said he was only a few minutes away.

He never made it home. The police report says that he was stopped at a stoplight when a man that was crossing the street shot him 5 times in the chest. He was dead moments later and the guy got away. My babysitter became worried after a half an hour. Right when she was about to call the police, they called her.

In the end I was parentless with a huge life insurance coverage that I couldn't touch until I was 18. But I didn't care. I fell into a deep, dark place, and I wasn't quite sure how I was going to crawl out of it, or even if I wanted to. I refused to talk to anyone, I hardly ate, and my magic was getting out of control. But could you blame me? I was 10 years old without any parents.
The head of the government agency where my father worked at was apparently friends with my father way back when, and was willing to take me in. There was no godparent stated in the will, no distant relatives, nothing. I had nothing but a vague knowledge of this man, Makarov. He was a short, old man, who dressed in well kept suits but always wore a weird stripped hat. He was plenty nice, and had a grandson a about the same age as me. They both tried to cheer me up and get me out of the hole I crawled my self into, in vain I might add. They never gave up though, even when I acted out, using my magic on them, only for them to use theirs back on me.

In the end, however, it was Loke who dug me out. He was my mother's first spirit (A/N: just go with it.). He knew my parents the best, and was constantly telling me that if my parents saw the way that I was acting they would be incredibly sad and disappointed in me. I did a lot of crying during my time with Loke, but he never cared, all he did was cry along with me, saying the pain will get better.

It took a while, but I eventually rejoined civilization. I took comfort in my spirits and trained like a madwoman with Capricorn. I went on to college and graduated at the top of my class in business. Makarov, whom I consider my grandfather now, recommended me to FTI, a newly created Lacrima trading business. Its been a long journey, but here I am; running a successful business and is one of the strongest celestial mages in the world.

"...Lucy? Lucy~?" Loke dragged out waving a hand in front of my face, successfully bringing me out of my thoughts.

I blinked a few times. "Sorry. I was just thinking about... them, and where I am now."

He smiled sadly and brought me into a hug. "It's okay. Anyway, tell me more about work... while you make me that sandwich."

We spent another hour just talking about my day and what's been going on in the Spirit World. Apparently, his relationship with Aries is going great. Aquarius and Scorpio are taking another vacation together so I shouldn't use them for a week or two. The Spirit King is planning another gala next month and is requiring every spirit to go.

"Oh the King! How is he? I haven't heard from him in a few months. Are he and the Queen still not talking?" The Queen had wanted to visit the Earth plane for a few days but the King was dead-set against it. There were thunderstorms for almost a whole week, which in theory, was supposed to be the two royal spirits arguing. Afterwards, the Queen gave him the silent treatment. I haven't heard from them since.

"Oh yes. They're doing fine," Loke continued. "He realized that he was being an "irrational old fool" and apologized to her majesty by agreeing to let her go to the human world, but only if he went with. They spent a lovely few days in the Bahamas."

"Really? They actually came to the earth plane and I didn't know about it? They didn't even say 'Hi' for crying out loud!" I was a little hurt. Sure they don't socialize with humans, but I was the exception. During my training time with Capricorn as a child, the King and Queen wanted to see what was taking up most of the zodiac keys' time. What they saw was a small human child learning how to use magic without her keys. At first they were against teaching me celestial spells, but once they learned more about me and who my mother was they conceded. Apparently they were good friends of Lilahs and had heard of her passing. Afterwards, they took it upon themselves to help me with my magic training. With their help, and many years, I easily became the strong celestial mage I wanted be. They kind of became my second set of parents, not that they could ever replace the first.

"Well, they knew that you would be busy trying to take care of your company, so they didn't want to impose. And to be honest, did you really want to see the King in hawaiian shorts?" He joked.

I laughed. "Yeah, you've got a point." I looked over at the clock on the wall, and sighed. "It's getting late and I have work tomorrow. I can't have Gray and Natsu screwing up another shipment. I'll see you later?"

He smiled, "Yeah, I'll come by tomorrow again." He hugged me one last time.
"Night, Loke," I yawned.

"Goodnight princess." Then there was a bright golden light and he was gone. Once more in the Spirit World.

I made my way over to the kitchen table to look at the mail. I had a bill that needed to be paid, a holiday card from Makarov and Laxus. I smiled looking at their corny cards. I needed get their presents wrapped up; Christmas was only a 9 days away after all.

I moved onto the package. It was strange. There was no return address, just my name scribbled on it. I picked it up and was surprised that such a small box could be so heavy. I shook it a little and heard a small beep. Curious, I brought it over to the kitchen counter and opened the knife drawer. Grabbing a small, but sharp peeling knife (A/N: take THAT Stuvengia!), I started to cut through the tape holding it shut. Once that was done, I opened the box to see some sort of machine. It had flashing lights, a button marked "Press" and a weird nozzle sticking out.

There was a loud knocking at my door, but I ignored it, thinking it could wait a minute. Curiosity got the better of me, and I pressed the button. I know that was stupid, a strange box is mailed to you and the first thing you do is press the button marked "Press". Yeah not the smartest thing in the world. Immediately a white smoke shot out of the nozzle, into my face and a loud beep filled the apartment.

Oh King, that stuff reeks! I had inhaled a lot of the smoke and was kind of nauseous now. I went to grab my phone, which was in my pocket, and call Laxus to see if he knew what this was; He was good with electronics and what not. But when I reached for my phone, the whole world tilted and that wave a nausea increased ten fold.

There was a loud bang that sounded like crashing. I spun around to face it but practically fell over when the world tilted again. It was then that I realized the world wasn't tilting, I was.

I've been drugged. That thought scared the life out of me. I'd never done drugs before and I didn't know what was going to happen. I didn't even know who drugged me. Fear and anger filled me. Fear for the unknown and anger for those who caused it.

There was something that sounded like many people running toward me. My body had started to go numb, and the only reason I knew that I'd been picked up was the feeling of flying and seeing furniture fly past me. I couldn't call up my magic or grab my keys to help me. I could feel the drug seeping into my mind now. The world started to go dark when I was put in a vehicle.

Fuck, I'm being kidnapped.

)::*::(

The world came back to me in a splash. Literally. Ice cold water was dumped on me and I yelled. A cold laughter filled the cement room I was in. I looked around to see a woman throwing a now empty bucket to the side. She had red hair and was fairly tall. She wore a strange armored suit with a crest on the chest. Ex-quip mage.

Slowly, I realized that I was tied to a chair, but my legs were free. A bare lightbulb hung above me. I took a quick inventory and angrily realized that my keys were gone. Bastards took them. Without direct contact with my keys, my spirits wouldn't know that I was in trouble. I could probably use some spells to get out of here, but I had to wait for my chance. I had a pounding headache, left over from the drugs.

Drugs! Shit, how long have I been out?

I didn't have any time to mull over this information before she threw another bucket of cold water on me. I gasped for breath as the cold seeped into my skin and glared at the woman.

"Wh-what t-t-the hel-ll?" I shivered. I was clearly awake so why did she use two buckets?

She shrugged like it was the most normal thing in the world. "I had two buckets. It would have been a waste."

I glared daggers at her while shivering like crazy. She smirked and moved to the steel door. She banged her fist on it two times and moved to the side.
With a loud creaking, a man walked in. He had dark hair with equally dark eyes and wore a finely made suit. He smiled at the woman and walked in front of me.

He squatted down so he was eye level with me. Immediately I recognized him and I felt any hope of escaping die a milli-second later.

"Yo-your-r Z-zere-ef!" I yelled/stuttered.

He was a recently-escaped criminal. Zeref was a crime boss who took over other crime boss' territory by killing them with his magic. He'd taken over most of Japan's territory and was moving on to the continent's territories. His magic was incredibly dangerous and should be treated with the utmost cation. However caught him must have been incredibly powerful. And probably dead now that he's escaped I couldn't help but think. But what in the hell did he want with me?

He smiled. "So you know who I am? Good, that'll make this easier for me."
I shivered, not from the cold but from the hidden threat that was, oh, so obvious.

He stood back up. "Do you know why you're here?"

"N-no."

He leaned forward, searching my eyes, to see if I was lying. He must have seen something because he sighed.

"You're telling the truth, but at the same time you're lying, you just don't know it."

At this point the shivers got less violent and I could talk straight. "What are you talking about? I don't know why I'm here!" I yelled.

He glanced down at me like I was just an insignificant pest crawled on the floor. But he sighed again and said, "You're here because I'm looking for someone. Someone you know. The same someone who put me in prison for almost 18 years!" He started getting angrier and expelling some magic at the same time. His magic made my skin crawl with the promise of pain. I took a sharp breath as his magic started to burn me.

At my intake of breath he snapped out of whatever angry memory he was in and reined in his magic. He cleared his throat, "Sorry. It is difficult to keep control of powerful magic, sometimes leaks just happen. Anyway, back to business."

He grabbed my throat with lightning speed ad lifted me up, chair and all. "Where is he?"

"Where's who?" I barely managed to say.

He growled, getting angrier. "Your father! Where is your father!"

So... rate and review :)

-KW