Mirene: Hey, so I guess I'm sort of new to this archive, so hi everyone! (: For my original fans... I'M SORRY, DON'T KILL ME FOR STARTING ANOTHER STORY. ;A; I couldn't help it. Ahem, anyways. Honestly I started reading Fairy Tail only three days ago and now I'm all caught up. I'm going to watch the anime soon too LOL. But I can't decide who I rather have Lucy with. o-o' It'll all come through in the end though, and I'm sure I'll figure out my preference soon. I'm reeeally leaning on NaLu though. But then Lucy looks good with almost everyone. Ah whatever. I don't own Fairy Tail but I do own upcoming OC's, which I will be drawing out on my DA and Instagram (on my profile). Rating is subject to change! :p

Extra notes: This isn't AU, but it won't follow the storyline with the future Lucy and dragons, etc. This is ten years after they normally win the GMG. Everyone has their same abilities, etc. A few characters might not be there though or just not spoken about. Also, sorry for any inaccurate info, you can just take it as something I made up if so... I don't know how much Fairy Tail info my brain stored in three days but oh well! (: This chapter is crazy long. Mainly because I wanted to fit the entire summary in it... LOL. Enjoy!

Chapter 1

"Ah.. Magnolia..." she smiled, breathing in the air of the town she once knew as she greeted the golden horizon.

"I'm finally back, aren't I."

Even ten years after the Grand Magic Games, Fairy Tail had still managed to keep its rank as the strongest magic guild in Fiore. The guild was still as noisy and cheerful as always, with Cana at the bar out-drinking everyone, Natsu and half-nude Gray fighting over how they could possibly beat Cana in drinking, flirting and fighting galore. But everything stopped when one woman that they hadn't seen in forever stepped in through the door.

"I'm home," she smiled, a brilliant aura blinding everyone, especially Cana, who immediately sported sunglasses to avoid an alcoholic's headache. The woman who had just come in threw a piece of paper in the air, one stamped with the approval of accomplishment. Everyone cheered as she stepped inside, hauling behind a large sack of her beloved reward.

"She's back!"

"This is definitely worth celebrating!"

"Our best member has returned!"

And the noise resumed as they all ushered her in—her, the titania, Erza Scarlet. The master, Makarov, quickly got off the counter and walked over to Erza to give her a toast. "You finished the two-years-long mission within one and a half years? You're exceeding expectations, Erza. How was it?"

Erza gladly took the compliment with a face that told him so. "The guild was filled with disgusting people, but I managed. They were strong though. A few managed to get away, and it took me a year to find and slaughter them all. Damn runaways. But I served them justice, and now I'm back where home really is. I've missed everyone, even those two brats over there." She smiled as she looked around and took in the people, until she found one missing. A frown displayed on her pursed lips. "Lucy... has she returned?"

Makarov, who was still laughing at Natsu and Gray having a contest to see who could shoot booze from their nose the farthest, immediately stopped at the name that had become unspeakable in the guild. "Shh. Don't mention her now, Natsu and Gray are too close by."

"You're right. I won't speak her name again, but... any word of her?"

The old master shook his head. "Unfortunately, we were all hoping that you had somehow found her during your mission. Since you didn't mention it, no one else did. With this... I don't know if Lucy is still even alive. We had a lot of hope, but if even your mission that took you all over Fiore couldn't get you to find her... Ten years is a long time. If she were alive, I'm sure that she would have found some way to contact Fairy Tail. It wouldn't be in her character to not do so within ten years."

"I don't want to believe that," Erza stated. "I'm sure no one else does either."

"Ten years is a long time, Erza. Ten years... will mean she's dead. We will hold her funeral here and pay the proper respects."

"She isn't dead!" Natsu appeared on their table suddenly, his foot knocking over Makarov's drink, causing him to curse and catch it with his stretched hand before punching Natsu on the head. "Hey, geezer, what was that for?"

"You can't seriously believe that Lucy is dead," Gray followed up. "She can't be."

"If she is dead, and we don't pay respects to her and continue to believe she's alive for the rest of our lives, how will her spirit feel?" Makarov raged at the two, and they shrunk down, unable to keep their argument.

It wasn't fair. Lucy couldn't be dead. She just couldn't. "She's alive," Natsu tried one last time.

"If she's alive, then within five days which will mark ten years of her disappearance, she will be back in one piece, saying for these past ten years, she was alive. After five days pass, and she is not back or has not made contact, we will let her pass on to Heaven. It wouldn't be right if she died and we didn't."

"Ten years is a short time!" Gray yelled, not wanting to believe that she was dead as much as Natsu and Erza did. After all, they were all a team, and they cherished Lucy the most. It wasn't the same, going to the guild and not seeing her bright smile and silky blond hair, or those gigantic boobs that would always charm all the men, or seeing her furiously yelling at them for barging into her house. It was never the same. These past ten years were horrible.

"Old man, if we beat you, you have to admit that Lucy is alive and we'll give her a hundred, no, a thousand years before we do the funeral for her! Me and Gray, we'll defeat you!"

"Fire Dragon-"

"Ice Make-"

They were both immediately stopped by two enormous fists destroying the top of their skulls. "Fools. You think I want to acknowledge her death? You think the guild wants to acknowledge it? You two think you are the only ones who thought of Lucy as family?"

He had a point. 'Stupid old geezer,' the two simultaneously thought.

"Ten years is a long enough wait for someone who disappeared into thin air like Lucy. Now go back to your rumbles and Gray, put on some clothes. Erza, we can go upstairs to talk about your mission. I want all the details, especially since the request rewarded you a hefty amount of jewels..."

"Alright," she said before following the master up, but not before sending Gray and Natsu a deadly glare. They both sweated bullets while hugging each others, muttering about what good companions they were. She chuckled as the door to the stairs closed behind her.

"Always as serious and scary as ever," Natsu muttered while Gray agreed. "I can't believe that they believe that Lucy is dead... I won't believe it until I see it."

"Right. Lucy isn't the kind of person that would just go and die on us. She'll come back. I'll find her," he said.

Meanwhile, Juvia sat in the corner, about to melt in sadness. All her dearest Gray has been doing as of lately was talking about finding Lucy with Natsu, slightly angering Juvia, who did miss Lucy, but still didn't like seeing her name come out of those soft, beautiful lips of her Gray. Ooh, if Juvia could, she'd also go missing and wait until Gray found her and tell her that he missed her... But then again she wouldn't be able to stay missing for long. If she didn't see Gray every day, she'd die. Literally.

"I want her to come back already. Do you think she's stronger now? Strong enough to go against us? A strong Lucy..." Natsu mused. "Maybe she went into hidden training these past ten years and isn't going to come back until she's strong."

"If we're stronger, don't you think she'd come back for us though? To defeat us and acknowledge herself as strong?" Gray added.

"Yeah, that would make a lot of sense! We just need to tell Lucy that. If only we knew where she was... maybe we should buy a magic speakerphone and shout it out loud from the mountains or-"

"Or we can just buy a better magic speakerphone with more power and just shout it to her from here-"

"Maybe she'd come back if you put on some clothes for once," Mirajane smiled and tossed Gray his clothes, which were on the counter in a neatly folded pile. He grabbed it and put it on as if Lucy would seriously come back for that.

"You think?" he wondered as he tugged his pants up.

"I'm pretty sure she was kidding," Wendy laughed, her blue hair swaying with her grown-up body. She was much taller and curvier than ten years ago, but the chest area was a whole different story. Let's just say that whoever drew that picture of future Wendy ten years ago was spot on. "But I'm sure that she's alive too! There's no way that she's just gone and left us!"

Lisanna smiled as she joined the conversation. "Exactly! If I can come back when everyone thought I was gone, Lucy's got to still be alive, and she'll come back for sure."

"But you were in Edolas," Erza cut in, having finished her conversation with Makarov and returned downstairs with the group. "There's no way that Lucy is in Edolas. Mystogan would have sent her back if so. I cherish Lucy as much as you guys do, but..."

"She's still alive." Natsu's resolve hardened. "I'll find her."

"I don't agree with Natsu, she's alive," Gray said.

"Idiot, that means you're agreeing with me!"

"But I said I didn't agree with you, bigger idiot!"

"But I said she's still alive, and you said she's alive, so you agree with me, biggest idiot!"

"No, now you're agreeing with me, biggerest idiot!"

"That's not even a word!"

"You're not even a word!"

"You're a color!"

"You're a gnat!"

"What the hell does a gnat have to do with anything?"

"You're a gnat. Gnatsu."

"Well then, you're a grape!"

"What?"

"I said you're a grape! Graype."

"You are so stupid!"

"I know you are!"

"Both of you, shut up. The reader probably thinks both of you and your idiotic one-line dialogue are annoying." Erza had skillfully requipped and pulled out two, long swords whose tips were pointing at both of their throats. Natsu tried to hold in a gulp while Gray did his best to tuck in his adam's apple as far in as he could. "Anyways, I heard you two and Wendy were taking up a mission today."

"Wendy doesn't want to go," Gray shrugged. "Apparently Happy and Carla went on a date today. She wants to stay home and hear all about it from Carla when she gets back in an hour, so we need to find another person since the requester wants three mages."

"Yeah, and Happy didn't let me go with him!" Natsu complained while Wendy giggled.

"Of course not, Natsu," she laughed.

"Obviously," Gray rolled his eyes.

"I'll take Wendy's place then." Erza offered and Natsu grinned. "Like old times. The strongest team in Fairy Tail, right?"

"Right!" Everyone in the guild cheered at the sound of their favorite team.

"The strongest team is back in business!" Elfman roared.

"We're always going to be number one with them around!" Cana laughed drunkenly.

"It's been ten years since they've done a mission together like this, hasn't it?" Fried smiled, Bickslow and Evergreen following suit. Laxus mumbled something before downing his shot first.

"Yeah, ever since L-" Everyone shot Jet a look, a look that meant if you finished that name, you would regret it. Levy elbowed him in the gut to get rid of the awkward silence that had fallen on them. "I mean, y-yeah! Let's bring a toast in for the strongest team in Fiore!" Lucky for him, the noise resumed. Everyone held up a glass of booze, laughing and smiling like nothing had been wrong in the past ten years, as if it were another day in the past.

Just another, typical, happy day.

"To the strongest team in Fiore!" they cheered, glasses raised.

Natsu dragged himself off of the train, bile rising up his esophagus and almost into his mouth. The taste was as rusty as the wheels on those... "Urgh..." He didn't want to think about vehicles anymore.

The request was to find a group of three rogue mages that called themselves the Demonic Three. They had apparently stolen several magic items from the magic vendor down the busiest street in Magnolia. Apparently it had happened too fast, and the mages were too powerful for the old seller to stop on his own. The old man had already heard of their heists in other areas and obviously thought that this was a job only Fairy Tail could do. Three against three was a good number, so that was why he had requested three and no less.

"Isn't he underestimating us then, thinking we can only take down one person each?" Gray grumbled as he kicked a stone while they walked down the rocky road.

"Yeah, he is, but when we finish this mission with relative ease, he won't make the same mistake again," Erza pointed out.

"Urgh."

"Natsu, we're already off the train," Gray sighed, pushing Natsu off of his side with his arm. "Flame head, don't lean on me. You're fatter than you think."

"I don't feel good. I can't shake it off. Bleh."

"Let's just get the request over with then," Erza said, requipping into her Heart Kruez armor. Her outfit transformed into a shiny metallic armor top that gleamed without a scratch, and her dark blue skirt and tall black boots went with it. A thick, sharp white sword lay ready in her hands.

They headed towards Akane Beach, sensing the most amount of magical items there. It was an odd place for magic to be, especially when it was such a popular non-magic user area. The mages they were going up against were weak, so Erza simply let Gray and Natsu do the work. One person was enough to take out the whole team, but they both insisted that the other couldn't do it on their own. It was difficult to keep the forming smile off of her serious face at warm times like these.

"Ice Make: Hammer!"

"Fire Dragon's Wing Attack!"

"Stop getting my target!"

"But the third one is both of our targets!"

"Yeah, but I got him first!"

"Stupid Graype, I got him first!"

"Damn Gnatsu, I did!"

The now magic-drained mages were about to run away, but the two of them were too furious at the other to let them go unscathed...that much.

"Ice Make: Floor!" Gray shouted, freezing the ground at the speed of light and causing icicles to pin the frightened mages' feet to where they were. Desperately, they tried to use a stolen flame orb to somehow melt the ice to no avail. Gray's magic was too powerful for the flimsy weapon to have an effect.

"Guess that means I get to attack! Fire Dragon's Roar!" Natsu growled, jumping in the air, and let out a fierce flaming blast from his mouth, reducing the mages to a pile of ashy, defeated men. "Yeah, I got them all!"

"You wouldn't have been able to do anything without me," Gray scoffed.

"As if! Your ice melted at the mere sight of my roar!"

"That ice barely used up any of my power, stupid flame eater. Your roar must really suck if all it did was melt my weak ice into water."

"Shut the hell up, ice penis!"

"You shut the hell up, fire tits!"

"You-"

Seeing them work together, and fight together, was just like old times. Erza almost wanted to laugh at their childish behavior, but only gave them a glare. The two froze, held hands, and immediately began skipping towards their victims singing "I love you, you love me".

A smile pulled her lips into a slight curve. If Lucy were here to see this, she'd outright laugh at the two.

Lucy...

"Where are you, Lucy?" Erza whispered to no one in particular. "We all miss you..."

After what had to have been the easiest mission of all time (or maybe because it was a regular request and that they were already capable of S-ranked missions), the three of them had taken the train home, with Natsu doing his best to hold in the vomit threatening to blast out of his mouth. His white scarf, which was outlined with black lines, dangled outside of the window with his head, where the train attendant had asked him to not throw up inside the vehicle. As usual, he wore a black and orange vest that boldly showed his pectorals and abs, and he had white pants on with a black and orange cloth attached to them.

Gray on the other hand, had somehow managed to take his black shirt off without anyone seeing again, now only wearing his black jeans and shoes. Stripping was a bad habit of his, but a habit nonetheless. "Gray, put your shirt back on," Erza scolded. He put it back on, but she knew it would come off somehow unknown to her again.

Erza had requipped into more casual clothing, with black booty shorts and a white tank top, her hair up in a tall and long, red ponytail.

It wasn't much of special day. It was uncommon now since everyone had become a lot more independent than ten years ago, but if it was ten years ago, this would definitely have been a totally normal day, with Team Natsu.

She wondered if Team Natsu would ever be normal again.

They were at the entrance of Magnolia now, having just got off the train and took a short break for Natsu, who immediately ran to the bathroom to do his business. He came back out of the bathroom a lot paler than one would think pale could be. "I hate trains," he wheezed out and adjusted his scarf.

"Dragon slayers," Gray sneered, shrugging. "Typical."

"Don't make me throw up on you, Graype."

"What can a gnat's barf do to my ice, Gnatsu?"

"Quit it," Erza commanded, and the happy-go-lucky best friends did so. As the train began moving again with the sound of its whistle, just the sound of the damn train made the pink head nauseated again.

But he wasn't the only one who was nauseated. A cloaked individual walked through them clumsily, a hand over her mouth with her eyes glazed over exactly like Natsu, except maybe she was a little paler. "God," the unknown woman squeaked. "Urgh... Damn trains..."

"Are you alright, Miss?" Erza helped the person stand up straight, and she let out a breath of relief.

Noticing the similar nausea, Natsu did his best to speak. "Are you a dragon slayer by any chance?"

"Y-Yes," she mumbled softly.

"What kind?" Gray asked.

"C-Celestial—urgh..."

"Celestial, huh? Sounds cool. Urgh. I ch-challenge you... Just let me get fired up," Natsu managed to say without gagging between each word.

"You—You want to go against m-me?" she said with some trouble before spitting and regaining the pigment in her skin. "Ah. Land feels so much better." The first thing the team noticed when she stood up straight to face them was that she had long, blonde hair... Just like Lucy's. The only problem was that she was wearing a golden mask that completely blocked off any significant details on her face.

Could it be?

But they didn't want to get their hopes up. After all, she did claim she was a dragon slayer, and Lucy certainly wasn't a dragon slayer of any sort. Then again, the only evidence of her being a dragon slayer is her apparent transportation nausea.

'That must be why Natsu challenged her... but I can sense her strength. If this is Lucy, then she must have been training vigorously these past ten years to have a presence that rivals that of Makarov,' Erza thought worriedly. Would it take all three of them to get her to use her dragon slayer magic?

No, Natsu was strong, and had gotten much stronger over the course of ten years. He and Gray were S-Class mages, herself being a senior S-Class member. She would have difficulty even if she had massive power.

"Yeah! I want to go against you, and if I win, you have to take off your mask!" Natsu grinned.

"I want to go against you too," Gray cut in. "I'm stronger than this lizard brat anyways."

"I'm not a lizard, I'm a salamander, you stripper!"

The woman who resembled Lucy clicked her tongue in annoyance at first, but after staring down Erza for a minute, she replied. "Fine, I'll take you both on, and in return, for my victory I want you to take down Infinitia and their master for me."

This is where Erza cut in, much to the woman's plan she assumed. She may have resembled Lucy, and her voice somewhat also sounded like Lucy's, but fighting another legal guild—especially their master—was against the rules. "We cannot do that to another guild."

"Then I do not wish to waste my time with your challenge. There is no benefit for me."

But just as Natsu and Gray felt, Erza did not want to lose this small yet hopeful lead on Lucy. "Then how about I join?" Erza spat. "I join in the fight, and you can have your test of strength. Don't underestimate us. We are the strongest team in Fiore."

"I do not want to remove my mask for no reason. If you aren't going to do anything for me, then I don't have to lift a single finger for you either."

"If you're Lucy, then we'll make you!" Erza shouted.

"I'm not the person you're looking for."

"We'll be the ones to judge that!" Erza said with a strong will before requipping back into her Heart Kruez armor, sword in the air as she lunged for the mysterious enigma, Natsu and Gray following after her. She would find out who this person was, and if it truly was Lucy, all the better.

But she was nakama. Erza halted for a split second. Could she be willing to hurt Lucy? What if she wasn't Lucy, but what if she was?

The pause gave a long enough time for the celestial dragon slayer to bring out an all-too-familiar whip. This made even Natsu and Gray pause in the air, burning fire on Natsu's fist with Gray and his hands in the position to cast molding magic. In only the next second, the whip had struck all three of their abdomens, shooting them all back with not too much pain.

"I refuse to fight," the cloaked person said again before turning around to run off.

"I won't let you run, Lucy!" Natsu yelled, chasing after her. "Gray! Combo move, let's do this!"

"Ice Make: Ice Cannon!" he shouted, shoving Natsu's body into the cannon in one swift movement.

"Whoa, whoa, Gray, wrong-"

Gray shot the cannon.

"Plaaaaaaan!" Natsu screamed like a girl all the way into the ground instead of the girl assumed to be Lucy's back because she had dodged it, now standing beside Natsu. "Tch. Damn it Gray!" His cry was muffled from his face plant.

"What in the world would you do even if you did find the girl you are looking for?" the celestial dragon slayer bent down and asked. (She wasn't sure if the apparent fire dragon slayer heard though, what with the dirt invading his ears and all. Gray's ice cannon was stronger than Natsu had thought.)

Erza stepped forward. "Lucy. Lucy Heartfilia, is that you?"

She turned around, and the three of them prepared themselves as the girl slowly put her hand over her mask, and in a slow, agonizing moment, she gave her reply. "Forgive me, but I am not this Lucy Heartfilia that you are looking for. This mask covers a deep scar of mine."

However, in one swift move, Natsu flew out of the ground right in front of the mystery woman. He gazed into the holes of her mask straight to her eyes, eyes that revealed so little to him. The atmosphere between the four had grown serious in only a matter of seconds.

In the next moment, Natsu's hand went flying toward the mask. Although the woman immediately moved to block the way to her mask, the pinkette took advantage of that and instantly used her own hand to knock the mask off her face.

There in front of the three was the face of Fairy Tail's Lucy.

Or was it?

The scar covering almost half her face told them another story.

"I'm not Lucy Heartfilia, so I'm sorry to have gotten your hopes up. I was also a bit rude to your challenge, I thought you were..." She couldn't find the right term, but she didn't want to seem like she had been in Magnolia long enough to learn about them. "Some rogues, I suppose?"

"Rogue? We're not anything like him!" Natsu said, greedily eating out of his plate while Gray and Erza sat nervously without touching their drinks. The new dragon slayer had offered to have lunch with them as her treat, so they were currently at Fairy Diner.

"She meant rogues as in thugs, not Sabertooth's Rogue," Gray muttered, tired of having to explain everything to the hothead.

"Then who exactly are you?" Erza asked firmly.

The girl looked up. "I do go by the name Lucy, but I am not the heiress to the Heartfilia estate. I know that it has long been bought, but I am still not of that blood. I simply go by Lucy, and I was named by my dragon."

"Dragon?" Natsu perked up immediately. "Like Igneel?"

"I don't know, but my dragon only recently disappeared. I'm traveling in search of Ceres, the celestial dragon."

"I'm looking for mine too, Igneel, the king of fire dragons!"

"That's nice," Lucy smiled that same smile that always charmed men before. They couldn't believe it wasn't their Lucy. "I'm sure someday that we will meet our dragons again."

"Definitely!" Natsu agreed.

"Lucy... What if you really are Lucy Heartfilia, but without the memories?" Erza pressed.

Lucy shook her head. "Unfortunately, I remember my entire past. I have never met you three before, nor have I ever heard of this Fairy Tail guild. I was entirely raised by Ceres, from whom I learned my magic."

"You can't possibly be from Fiore without having heard of us?" Gray muttered, showing his pride in his guild. That was when he noticed that her hands were gloved. "Can we see your left hand then, Lucy?"

"No. You can't."

"Why is that?" Erza cut in.

The blonde slayer blushed a bit, her cheeks the color of Erza's hair now. "I, erm... It's personal..."

'What on Earthland could be personal about a hand?' the redhead thought, but decided to let it go. "Then may we invite you to our guild, Lucy? Our entire guild will recognize you, I'm sure of it. Then you will know that we aren't simply playing you."

"Your guild? Fairy Tail?" Erza didn't miss the light tone she spoke in.

"Yes. Fairy Tail, Lucy H... No, Just Lucy. Lucy's guild."

The Fairy Tail insignia was as large as ever on top of their large guild. It had grown and grown since Lucy had been gone, and the differences were more than obvious just looking from the outside. It had become a castle.

Lucy simply stared in amazement. Ten long years had turned her little home into a mansion! Yes, she was Lucy—Lucy Heartfilia, if you must, but it was Lucy all the same. She had her reasons for lying, and had her reasons for changing. It wasn't as though she was doing because she hated them, no, she was doing this for their sake. She told herself to stop thinking about it and simply go along with the flow because all would be explained eventually. Rushing into it wouldn't make things better, and it was better this way. The guild didn't seem too affected by her leave anyways.

She refused to feel hurt and show any signs of her original self. The time would come on its own sooner or later.

But still, the changes left her speechless. Fairy Tail was the strongest guild in the land after all, and what with the mountain of requests coming in everyday, it was no surprise that their guild had grown and grown, doubling with new members. Few guilds ever dared to challenge them now, and the only one even remotely capable of defeating the non S-Class mages was the new dragon slayer guild, Infinitia, who had debuted at the GMG in third place a year ago.

Natsu and Gray were ready to shout to the world rather than just their guild that Lucy was back. They were ecstatic. They were too happy, even Erza, to notice the changes in Lucy. They were small changes with one big change, but changes nonetheless.

"We're back!" All three announced, with Lucy trailing behind them. The guild gasped and Team Natsu prepared themselves for the biggest party in ten years, and most of all, the look on their master's face when they saw Lucy.

"They're back! The strongest team in Fiore has returned!" The entire guild erupted into a volcano of cheers and raised glasses once again. Natsu grinned as he readied himself to reintroduce Lucy back into the guild. Unfortunately, Erza, being the leader that she is, beat him to it.

"We've all brought great news... News worthy of an even bigger celebration than this!" The mass crowd was silent, waiting for Erza to continue. Something bigger than this? That was a rarity already! What on Earth could Erza have-

And then they saw her.

"Who..." Visca gasped.

"She's..." Lisanna whispered.

"Oh?" Makarov appeared from thin air, walking down the stairs and popping a party popper that shot a little bit of confetti on Gajeel. He growled, and Levy calmly pulled it out of his hair while somehow still keeping her eyes on the four that just came back.

"It's Lucy!" Natsu shouted in happiness, jumping around with Gray expecting everyone to fill in with them, but the eerie quietness made them freeze quickly. Even Erza looked confused.

"Natsu..." Levy spoke with a glint of anger in her eyes. "That was not a funny joke. Although the newcomer may have a sc—I mean, she's a brilliantly beautiful and strong recruit, you can't go claiming that she is Lucy."

"You are all so..." Mirajane whimpered before running to the storage room in tears.

"That's too cruel," Levy sighed into her glass of booze, and everyone began agreeing with them. Lucy was their family! How could they just pick up a replacement for her like that when they had fought so readily for Lucy only a few hours ago? Sure, the newcomer seemed strong and lovely, but she wasn't their Lucy.

Team Natsu on the other hand was dumbfounded. How did they not recognize her? She was the spitting image of Lucy, for Mavis' sake! The scar on her face couldn't cover that. This wasn't how the guild was supposed to be like right now, with all this depression and turmoil brewing. They were supposed to be celebrating and bring Lucy back to the good days and regain her apparently lost memories. This was the exact opposite.

"But... but she looks exactly like Lucy! This is Lucy!" Natsu exclaimed, with Gray immediately backing him up.

"How can nakama not recognize their nakama? Sure, it's been ten years, but she still looks the same! So that's no excuse!"

"Both of you, stop." Erza commanded. Gray and Natsu didn't notice, but she just had a conversation with the master and had barely returned. "The master wants to speak to us. You too Lucy. There's no point. The guild doesn't see Lucy like we do..."

"But she's got to be Lucy..."

"Got to be..."

"Come," Makarov gestured from atop the staircase. "I want to speak with you three... and especially this 'Lucy'."

Mirene: Ahhh... What a long chapter. It took me three hours because I didn't know how I wanted to introduce Lucy and I rewrote it like five times, but I'm still not satisfied. Oh well, I'm sorry for any mistakes, etc. And I hope you all will review, favorite, and follow because each one makes me suuuper happy and I love hearing feedback. Seriously. Go ahead and give me your opinion on who you want Lucy to end up with too! I will probably also update soon because the ideas are literally pouring out of my brain. Until the next chapter then! (: