Hey everyone, so for my first fanfic I wanted to do something that maybe hasn't been seen before. It may seem a little cliché but the idea kind of came to me and so here we are.
First off, please note that in the first few chapters I do make Natsu extremely OOC (out of character) as he's very cold and even violent. But I promise there's a reason and it will all make sense.
Secondly, this story is rated T for strong language and violence (not so much in this chapter but there will be in later chapters)
Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail
Chapter 1 - Portrait
Realization hit her as she tapped her pencil repeatedly on her desk:
Lucy hated school. Tests to be more specific.
Much to her disapproval, that was just the thing she was in the middle of. She ran an irritated hand through her hair, hoping that would somehow give her the answers she needed.
"Damn it." She muttered to herself as she was still blanking. She had stayed up late the previous night studying for this exam and to be honest she was fairly confident in taking it. And yet, the second the tests had been passed out she completely forgot everything. She roughly shoved her hand into her pocket and dug around for a minute until she found what she was searching for.
Pulling out a golden key out, she examined the end. It was white and blue, displaying the pattern for the zodiac sign Aquarius. Despite her sign being Cancer (a/n in the English translation Lucy was given the birthday July 1st so I'm going to stick with that for this story) and not Aquarius, she treasured the golden key. Gripping it tight she held it close to her chest. Inhaling a deep breath, Lucy closed her eyes and allowed the memory to play through her head.
Lucy was crying beside the bed of her sick mother. Despite her young age Lucy knew far too well that her mother wasn't going to make it through this. "Mama…" Lucy hiccupped, dropping her head into her mother's lap.
"Hush child… I'm right here." Layla's words where smooth and gentle and helped calm the crying toddler. Patting Lucy's head she leaned down so that she could whisper in her ear, "I have a present for you."
Almost instantly forgetting her sadness she lifted her head. Her big doe eyes widened in curiosity. "What is it, what is it?!"
Lucy was practically jumping up and down in her bedside seat as her mother reached over to the small table, opening its drawer. The golden key she pulled out shimmered and Lucy's gaze turned to awe. "Take care of this key Lucy, for it will protect when I am unable to."
Nodding her head Lucy took the key and pretended to unlock and imaginary door. Chuckling her mother put her hand on her daughter's shoulder, "One day you will use this key, and when you do, treasure it as I have."
Lucy's eyes snapped open with new found determination. This test was the only thing between her and her senior graduation, and she sure as hell wouldn't give up now. The key had become a good luck charm for Lucy, and it seemed that its luck would strike again as she began to remember the answers to most of the questions. Her grip never loosening from the key, she answered every question with confidence.
Lucy slipped into the house, dropping her backpack off at the door. "I'm home!" She got about half way down the hallway when her father finally called back. "How did the test go?" He voice was gruff but caring, and despite their complicated relationship, Lucy appreciated his attempt at conversation.
"I won't know until next week." She turned the corner to see her father working hard at his desk. "That's too bad." He spoke, not lifting his head from his work. Lucy nodded her head before making her way to the kitchen. Her father and she weren't on the tightest of terms. They certainly didn't hate each other, but they didn't really love each other either. Ever since her mother passed away he would swamp himself in his work and never really had time to raise his daughter. She grew up alone for the most part, and her only real interaction with humans was school. But due to her being the rich man's daughter, she alienated herself fearing people would only approach her with money in mind. In fact, in all of her school years she only made one friend: Levy McGarden.
Natsu
I was pacing back and forth as I spoke on the phone. "Damn it Gajeel I don't have time for this. Whether you have the blueprints or not we have to raid the house tonight. Just get back here and we can adjust out plan." I took in a sharp breath, trying my hardest not to snap.
"Calm down flame brain no need to get so heated. We don't need the blueprints." I stopped in my tracks, throwing a warning glare at Gray. He was walking on thin ice. Backing off, Gray closed his mouth, plopping himself down at the counter and propping his feet on the table.
"As much as I know you'd hate to admit it, he's right. We don't need the blueprints Natsu. The man may live in a mansion but how hard can it be to find a portrait of his wife." Erza looked at me knowingly, pushing her crimson hair off of her shoulder and allowing it to fall behind her back. Exhaling a breath I didn't know I was holding I nodded.
"Whatever… We Gajeel returns we can fix his fuck up." I growled, before returning to my pacing. Normally I would have taken Gray's verbal challenge, but tonight was far too important to get into a pointless squabble. There was too much at stake.
Not long after I spoke up Gajeel burst through the door. I looked over my shoulder, acknowledging his arrival and called everyone over to the counter, pushing Gray's feet off in the process.
"Alright, considering we don't have blueprints of the manor we will have to make a slight adjustment to our plan." I paused, glaring at Gajeel, he only grunted in return. "Gray, you'll take the north wing, Gajeel will take the west, Erza you the east, and I'll go south." They all nodded their heads in understanding. See the original plan was not to split up, we would have examined the blueprints and found exactly where the painting was and from there we would have taken necessary actions to get what we needed.
Guess now we'd have to wring it. I lifted up my phone, dialing my comrade. It rang twice before I heard the click that told me she picked up. Before she had a chance to say anything I spoke up, "Gajeel couldn't get the blueprints so we're going to have to split up, do you think you and Juvia will be able to take down the alarms for the whole mansion?" There was no response for a minute, and I was afraid I was asking too much. She and Juvia were experts at hacking so I knew they'd have no problem taking out a section of the estate after we found where we needed to go. However, going in blind was a whole another thing entirely. For one, it would take more time that we didn't have and it meant we had to cover more ground. And now it was proving it may also mean we go in with alarms still intact.
There was a sigh on the other end of the line, "Consider it done."
I smirked even though I knew she couldn't see it. "Perfect, don't screw up Wendy." She gave a confident hum before hanging up the phone.
I turned back to my other comrades with the grin still in place. I clapped my hands together enthusiastically. "So, despite the setback, everything is still a go. Tonight, we raid Heartfilia manor."
Lucy
It was late and yet I still couldn't sleep. What if I failed the test after all? Normally, I wouldn't be so worried over a test, but this one would determine if I'd be able to leave the hell hole they call school. I flopped down on my bed, letting out a grunt of annoyance.
I hated stress, and yet this exam was overloading my mind with it. I glanced at my clock to find it was unfortunately 2 am. I was going to regret being up this late in the morning. I squeezed my eyes shut, practically pleading for them to close and stay shut. Just when I thought I was making progress my ears picked up on… Shattering glass?
Did a window break for god's sake? I jumped out of bed, slowly opening my door and creeping down the hall. Jude was probably making his way to bed and just tripped or something. Yeah, that had to be it.
I kept reassuring myself that it wasn't anything bad as I got closer and closer to the source of the sound. Sure enough, when I made it to said window, there was shattered glass spread across the floor. The moon's light illuminating the hallway. I peered outside, searching for anything out of place and when I found nothing I found the courage to speak. "Jude..?"
There was no answer but I definitely heard something move behind me. There were a lot of things I was expecting to see when I turned around. An axe swinging murder? Check. My father? Check. An already half naked man taking off his pants? Not so much. But alas, there stood a dark haired, dark eyed man ripping off his pants in the middle of my hallway at two in the morning.
I blinked a few times, not sure I wasn't completely imagining the whole thing due to sleep deprivation. After indeed realizing this was reality, I sprang into action. "LUCY KICK!"
I jumped up, preparing to bring my leg down on him in my most ultimate attack. However, remaining completely silent and unfazed the man lifted his hands up and caught my leg in mid swing causing me to tumble to the ground. I let out a yelp as my butt hit the ground, and I felt my face flush. If it was because I was angry or embarrassed I wasn't so sure. From the corner of my eye I saw something shimmer, and by the way the intruder narrowed his eyes, he saw it too.
Quickly looking to my left, I saw my golden key. Realizing it must have fallen out of my pocket as I was thrown to the ground, I quickly leapt for it, grasping it in my hands before he had a chance to react. I wasn't sure why I was so hasty but something in the look in his eye said he wanted this key. As he was taking slow steps towards me, for the first time since contact with this robber I felt scared.
Why this fear didn't strike me sooner I couldn't answer, but with every step he took closer I felt myself shakily crawling back until my back hit the wall.Shit.
Just as I feared the worst, the man stopped. He brought he hand to his ear before glancing down to the key in my hand. For the first time, he spoke, "Alright fire breath, you take the bracelet and the others and go. I think I found one of the keys. I'll meet you there shortly."
Gripping the key tighter I slowly stood back up. He would have to pry this key from my dead body if he wanted it that badly. Much to my discomfort the intruder spoke to me softly, "Look, I don't want to hurt you so please just give me the key. I'll leave without another word if you do."
He gave me a sad excuse for a friendly grin and I pursed my lips in disgust. "No way in hell."
Shrugging his shoulders nonchalantly, he appeared next to me in just one stride. Placing his hand on my shoulder I yelped at how cold it was. Squeezing my eyes tight I yelled as loud as I could, "Father!"
Normally, I didn't address him as such, but in this situation I would yell whatever to get Jude's attention, he would help me.
"Fuck," The unknown man whispered harshly looking around for any signs of movement. As large footsteps could be heard making their way down the hall I suddenly felt a sharp pain in my head before I collapsed; the sleep I so desperately wanted earlier taking away my vision and plummeting me into darkness.
Natsu
Everything seemed to work out in the beginning. When we made it into the house Erza confirmed that the old man was sound asleep and I managed to stumble upon the portrait of his wife. Just as I had predicted, there was a safe hidden behind it. One which I had easily broken into and took out its contents. Though I did get the bracelet I wanted, there were no keys in there to activate it. Cursing to myself slightly I called over the intercom that I secured the device but no keys.
Much to my relief, Gray assured us that he found a key and so we all left the mansion. And yet, here we all were waiting for Gray whom had still not showed up.
"Where could Gray-sama be?" Juvia spoke softly on the verge of tears, clearly overreacting. Erza glared at her mildly annoyed.
"He's fine, Gray may be an idiot but he can hold his own." As if on cue, Gray made his way over to us, with a blonde limp in his arms. I furrowed my eyebrows.
"This better be a joke ice princess, why the hell do you have that old man's daughter?!" Dropping her down at my feet a little too roughly for comfort he pointed at her hand.
"Chill out squinty eyes, I tried to take just the key but she started screaming for her father so I had no choice."
I frowned at his name calling, wanting to retort, but glanced down at her hand instead, noticing for the first time she did indeed hold a key.
"Alright, let's get back to base and we'll deal with all this there." I began walking off when Wendy spoke up,
"Wait Natsu, are we seriously taking her hostage?" Wendy did have a point. Now that she was unconscious we could just pry the key out of her hand and leave her behind, but at the same time… None of us knew how the machine worked, the fact she had a key had to mean she knew something.
"We have no choice, Gajeel carry buttercup the rest of the way."
Lucy
The first thing I noticed was that my head hurt. The second thing: I was not in my bed. Shifting slightly I noticed that this was far too firm to be my comforter. I frowned, did I fall out of my bed and hit my head or something?
"You are an idiot Natsu Dragneel." The tone sounded harsh and all too familiar as a loud smack filled my ears. Presumably, the said person was just smacked. I winced slightly, feeling sorry for the guy. Suddenly, the events from earlier finally came back to me as I remembered being attacked by that almost naked man. With my eyes still refusing to open I had no choice but to keep listening.
"I'd advise you to know your place Levy. I will let it slide this once, but step out of line again and I will not be so kind." Levy? No, it couldn't be my Levy.
"Like hell, I'll smack you again if I want to you bastard." The more I listened the more it sounded like my dear friend. Why was she so angry?
"This was not part of the plan. She was not part of the plan. I will not let you drag her down to your level, so put her back before she wakes up you asshole!" There was another smack but this time I got the feeling Levy was on the receiving end.
"I don't have a choice! I didn't want to bring some blonde bimbo here either, but with Zeref up my ass with this machine I can't afford any more fuck ups. Now I warned you that if you stepped out of line again you'd be punished so next time know your place." The man sounded terrifyingly angry.
Finally, I forced my eyes open to finally take in the scene around me.
A crimson haired girl was leaning against the wall and right next to her was a girl who looked younger than me with long blue ponytails. My eyes continued shifting through the room and I saw the intruder from earlier next to another, blue haired woman. Finally my eyes rested on a pink haired man, his shoulders held back and his eyes cast downward with glowing anger. I followed his gaze to see and brute of a man with many piercings helping Levy stand.
Let me rephrase that. Helping my Levy stand.
As she stood, our eyes made contact and almost immediately her eyes glazed over as if she were about to cry.
"You weren't supposed to wake up yet… I didn't want you take wake up here… With these monsters."
First off, please don't get upset at the fact Natsu hit Levy, his harshness will have an explanation, and it will all make sense then. Also, I understand that there's a lot of stuff that doesn't make too much sense (why Lucy was kidnapped, the significance of the keys, zeref, etc), but please bare with it, I promise I have a plan for what's going to happen and it'll all come together.
-Smoltres